In a political sense, nothing can get the crowd going quite like praising your chosen all-powerful deity and pledging yourself to him/her/them/it publicly. In reality, belief can often be the only thing you have left to hold on to when even hope is lost. In magic—well, in magic words have power. Imagine what can happen when you throw faith and belief into that melting pot of trouble... Events unfold including but not limited to: John has a crisis of faith, Hannah has a different kind of crisis that also happens to involve faith, And several people disappear into thin air!

 

“So, how exactly did you manage to convince them that there was even a stitch of truth to that stupid story you fed the sweater-vest guy?”

John shot a slightly worried look over his shoulder at the somehow still waving guy in question, who was ever so politely bidding us farewell from his doorway with that same, slightly creepy, guileless smile plastered on his dopy face once more.

“No one wants to believe in higher powers being actually real, Han, when the choices are ‘believe we were visited by something beyond human comprehension that used you as its entrance point’, or ‘weird magic reacted with weird magic weirdly’, what option did you think they’d run with?”

Huh—that’s a fair point actually. When he puts it that way, I doubt he even had to try to convince them all about his version of events, let alone do much to hide my identity at the same time.

“I take it, you left me passed out in the grass to make weaving your lies easier?”

John’s head cocked to the side slightly, as if he was somehow confused by my question, but the tiny twitch of his lips he couldn’t control said more than enough for me to ignore anything he may say in response, due to the fact that I obviously hit the nail on the head with that one, no matter what other reasoning he might have to offer instead.

“Where are we going now then?”

This time John let his lips twitch up into a full blown smirk. He even jogged forward slightly so he could turn around and face me properly while walking backwards, like an idiot, too.

“You tell me. The Hub has pretty obviously been shaped by your mind in some way or another, just from all the marble, artwork and glass ceilings around here now, alone. If you were redesigning the Hubs entirely and you wanted to make an easy public access route to the new transport system you were setting up, where would you put the entrance?”

My lips tensed down slightly into a pout of annoyance, mostly because of how casual he’s being about all of this, but also, maybe just slightly, because he’s got a point as well.

I’d have to be blind to not see just how much the ‘new Hubs’ are shaped towards my tastes at this point, honestly. Maps at every junction, no more unnavigable hallways, bright and airy decor with more than a few touches that I know exist in my Realm as well. It all totals up into a lot of obvious signs which are kind of hard to ignore, sadly.

“I’d put the entrance in the main reception area, on the left-hand side of the main entrance, with the exits on the right-hand side as you walk in, preferably making them visible only when you know they are there, to limit initial foot traffic until I’ve gotten a chance to check the place out for myself first.”

John stumbled for a step or two, but recovered quickly and spun around while swinging his arm up to land around my shoulders for a tight squeeze as his magic practically bubbled over with barely hidden amusement.

“To the reception area it is then! You really do have a devious little brain sometimes, Han. You know that, right?”

Even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t have answered him due to the even tighter squeeze he gave me a few moments later, that actually managed to catch me off guard enough to stall out all rational thought in my head, as he practically lifted me off my feet for a few precious, disorientating seconds as if I weighed nothing at all.

“Get your arm off me, John-Boy, before I zap you!”

======

My eyes scanned around the newly grass-covered Hub entrance and, aside from a lot of random staff members moving about doing odd things like taking grass samples or even one guy who’d apparently decided to take a nap over in the corner, something I honestly can’t blame him for considering how nice it is in here now, there didn’t appear to be anything different or out of place compared to what I remember the last time I was in here, unfortunately. I squinted slightly and stared at the empty spaces on either side of the glowing doorway leading out of the Hub in confusion, but found absolutely nothing odd to focus on at all, much to my growing frustration.

“Having trouble finding your own secret entrance, Han?”

My head snapped up to glare at John who seems far too amused for his own good right now. It was his stupid idea that whatever happened in here earlier may have been shaped by my mind, so if he’s wrong, then he’s got nothing to be smug about, damn it!

“You’ve gotta believe, Tinkerbell!”

My height, annoyingly childish-looking face and general attitude aside, I do not look like a little fairy, John-Boy! I can’t believe he would say something like th—

As I started building up steam towards a truly epic explosion of rage at him for creating yet another unfair nickname for me, as if he doesn’t have enough of them already, my anger guttered out before I could even voice my first yell because John chose that moment to take three steps forward and promptly disappear into thin air, stalling me out in shock more than anything else. I stood there, frozen for a few seconds, just staring at the empty space where he’d disappeared. My brain working over any reasoning it could find for him obviously being able to see an entrance I couldn’t and coming up blank.

It wasn’t until Eris skipped forward and disappeared as well, followed closely by a slightly confused Sarah, an oddly excited-looking Fena, and both the AMS girls, that it finally clicked in my head why I was the only one who couldn’t see them.
…‘Tinkerbell’, my ass!…

“I don’t believe in fairies—”

Actually, I don’t believe in the doorways’ existence, because they weren’t here when I first looked and my brain tends to run on empirical evidence like that most of the time, but his point has still been made, at least. John and the others can see the doorways because they believed they would be there, they believed in my ability to create them in the first place, something I didn’t do until now, quite frankly.

“I believe in magically appearing doorways?”
The words didn’t help in the slightest, annoyingly. This isn’t some kids’ cartoon, after all.

After a few seconds of desperately running the odds of this all being a big joke on me by John, and factoring in the odds that Sarah or Eris would go along with it, let alone keep silent while invisible somehow for this long, I finally came to the conclusion that the only logical truth of this situation has to be that the doorways do exist. The moment I came to that conclusion, huge metal-framed doorways leading to a tired-looking set of concrete steps appeared, right in front of me, as if they’d always been there, complete with an amused and slightly worried looking group of entourage members standing inside it as well.

A glance to my left showed that a second, presumably ‘exit’ path, set of stairs had appeared on the other side of the Hub’s entranceway. Both entrances look oddly familiar to me for some reason but I just can’t place where I know them from. Presumably they must have been taken from some distant part of my mind, in the same way everything else in the newly refurbished Hubs seem to have been so far. That doesn’t mean I have any clue where they are from tho—

======

“You able to see us yet, Tink?”

I swear to the Powers, if he doesn’t drop that ‘Tinkerbell’ crap right now I’m gonna zap him so hard he’ll be lucky if he comes out of it with the conversational skills of a root vegetable! Rather than give him the satisfaction of a verbal answer, I flipped my hair back haughtily and stalked my way onto the new staircase, taking a moment’s pause to shove him to the side slightly with my elbow in passing, just because I could. The moment’s contact between us was enough for me to get a sense of his magic, and it was pretty obvious that he was amused beyond reason at the moment, probably because he’s found a new way to needle me now.

“Sarah, you, Fena, and Eris stay here. Trudy, can you and Rose go back and get Pauly to gather the troops when he’s free, then show them how to get in here?”

Trudy offered me a warm smile and nodded along as Rosemary let off a happy little giggle while offering me a worryingly well-done salute for her troubles. Sarah didn’t look pleased about being effectively told to stay put, but Eris didn’t seem to mind and Fena knows me well enough to keep an eye on them both while I go scout ahead with John.

I don’t exactly relish the idea of being alone with him at the moment, considering the playful mood he’s in for some reason, but if I have to drag someone with me into unknown territory, John would be my first choice due to his uncanny ability to survive bad situations like the cockroach he is.

“Come on, John-Boy. Let’s go see what kind of horrors my mind has supposedly made without my direct input this time.”

He didn’t hesitate in stepping up to my side at that challenge, the utter glee I could feel radiating off of him at the prospect of going into the unknown with me was so overwhelming that part of me honestly expected him to take my hand and pull me forward like a little child trying to drag his mommy off to the big fun rides at an amusement park.

He nudged his shoulder against mine and gave me a wide grin, which totally deserved the derisive snort I let off moments later, before stepping down once more on the relatively dark concrete stairwell below us.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this...”

======

After three right-angle turns and about thirty seconds worth of walking, not to mention multiple ambient magic-powered flame spells stuck to the walls like the ones I used back in Peru so we could see better, there finally came a light at the end of the tunnel.

I eagerly sped up my steps in order to get there, and maybe create some space between us again at last, because I’m pretty sure John’s spent most of the walk down either staring at or finding excuses to brush up against my ass like the big perv he is at times an—
…Oh, shit!…

I’d love to say that the first thing I noticed was that the room we’d just come out in is obviously a replica of the Grand Central Station main terminal in New York, complete with glass ceiling, side hallways and even information kiosks with attached billboards dotted around the place as well.

I’d love to say that the first thing I noticed was the worrying amount of Fae, mostly Fauni, although several other species were also moving around on the floor below us, talking to each other or doing what the rest apparently were doing, which happened to be kneeling down and ‘praying’ at the feet of what was actually the first thing I noticed, for rather obvious reasons.

Right in the middle of this replica of Grand Central Station, standing pride of place and towering above everything else so much that I’m surprised it could even fit under the high ceiling itself, was a giant golden statue of a woman who even I can’t deny is obviously—painfully obviously—supposed to me!

John froze when he finally caught up with me and his presence managed to, at least somewhat, jolt me back into reality again. Unfortunately, all that did was allow me to shift my focus enough that I could pick up the horrifyingly reverent mutter that seemed to practically echo off the walls around us, as it was spoken in unison by all the Fae who were busy praying to the golden ‘Me’ statue below.

“Bii-Sanya aba-aii, Bii-Sanya aba-aii, Bii-Sanya aba-aii!”

“Han, please tell me you didn’t create this on purpose.”
Shut up, John-Boy! Of course I didn’t create this! I don’t even remember creating anything that’s changed within the Hubs, but I know I wouldn’t have created bloody—bloody—this!

“I think, uh—I think my moving things around in here, may have uncovered some secret Fae temples, usually buried far away from human sight, or something.”
He turned and shot me a look that was full of disbelief, a look that I honestly can’t blame him for giving me at this point given the evidence at hand and the situation we’re in currently.
“Judging by the words they keep repeating. I’d guess that statue is of their Goddess, the ‘Lady Death’. That’s what Felix calls, um—her?—at least.”

John’s eyebrows shot up sceptically in response to my rather uncertain-sounding attempt at shifting focus away from the obvious elephant in the room, namely, the giant golden statue that can only be of me, considering it’s got my hair, face, and even my current bloody clothes down perfectly.

“Okay, I’ve been willing to wait and see what happens with all this mess, but I think it’s time we had a talk about this ‘Lady Death’ stuff you’re involved in...”
What?!
“Han, do you honestly not remember anything that happened earlier? Your skin started glowing as gold as that statue, you were floating and talking weird, then you claimed to be both Hannah Cooper and the ‘Lady Death’—pretty sure we’re beyond the point of you keeping things under wraps on this one, so what the hell is going on?”

I don’t—I can’t just—
I don’t—

“I don’t know, okay?”

Felix calls me it all the time and the other Fae I’ve met seem oddly receptive to me too, but I really don’t know the first thing about this supposed ‘Lady Death’, let alone any kind of reason why they would think that I’m her in the first place!

“I seriously don’t know John. Until recently the Fae couldn’t give two craps about me, but since I met Felix, they’ve been getting more and more interested in me. It’s not just the ones in the Hub, either. There was that invasion of Pixies in our house who kept braiding my hair too. Something about my magic is attracting them and the only thing I can think of that might have caused it is the weird golden healing stuff I can do.”

Suggesting that as the cause, does bring in some rather awkward questions about Arista, or Ari’s, places in Fae mythology, I guess, considering they were the only other people historically able to access that ‘spark’ of life-giving power, as Edith described it, before I came along, at least.

“Whatever possessed you when you touched the magic in here, Han, was powerful beyond belief.”

John hesitated for a moment before plowing on with whatever is bothering him about all this.

“Normals consider mages to be gods, a lot of the time, while among mages Arista and I are considered gods, to one degree or another—I’ve never had a reason to believe in the odd tales of ‘higher powers’ and actual gods before today because of that fact, but I’m seriously at a loss on this one, unless you can offer me some kind of alternative explanation?”

He sighed heavily and leaned back against the wall of the staircase as his hand came up to rest just above his heart thoughtfully for a moment or two.

“Whatever that thing in control of you was, Han, she commanded magic with a thought. Her mere presence had my core vibrating in my chest, as if it was desperately trying to jump out and be closer to her. I’ll not admit to this again if you tell anyone else but—I was scared!—you can be dangerously powerful at times, Han, but that just leaves me watching you in awe and joy.”

His arms came down, folded across his chest and he shuddered heavily before speaking once more.

“That thing, the being that controlled your body while claiming to be you in some way, horrified me on such a base level that I froze like a child and shook in place, despite my best efforts to fight that feeling off!”
Slowly, his head sunk down to stare at his hands for a second before he tightened them into fists and glanced up at me with determination on his face.
“She let you go, Han. I tried to wrap you in my magic again, to free you from the Hub’s magic, and hopefully her as well, but it didn’t work, and then she let you go!”

I didn’t really know what to say to him after that chilling declaration. The idea of being possessed again is disturbing enough in itself after my experiences with Arista, but the fact that I can’t remember it at all is so much worse somehow—at least with Arista, I could see what she was doing and fight back somehow, or plan against her in the meantime. There’s not exactly much I can do against a complete blank in my memories and that’s, quite frankly, terrifying!

“It’s going to be okay, John. You know what we’re like. I survived your crazy ass long enough for you to snap out of it after all, and you lived through my stint as Arista’s puppet-body, too. If there actually are higher Powers out there, or gods, or anything at all and they’ve inexplicably taken an interest in us, then that just means we’ve got some more crazies to beat into submission, right?”

Just to bring my point home, I sidled up to him and leaned against the wall as well, my arm twitching up to nudge him with my elbow as a little teasing smile played across my lips, for his sake more than anything.

He glanced down at me for a few moments with a worryingly lost look on his face, but eventually just a hint of a smile played across his lips in response to my own, that alone was enough for now, to assure me that he’d be okay. It’s kind of odd to be the one doing the reassuring and confidence bolstering for once, but he’s done it enough times for me at this point that he’s due a turn in my book.

“Now, enough worrying! It doesn’t suit you. Whatever will come for us will have to take a number behind all the rest of the insanity in our lives, right?”

He sighed and I dug my elbow into his ribs harshly, making him twitch away from me slightly in surprise before I continued on, anyway.

“Stop acting like your facing our first swimming lesson in school all over again and focus on our current problems instead, John-Boy, namely, deciding if it’s wise for me to walk the rest of the way down into Grand Central Station to go check out the apparently magical train network my twisted little brain came up with while under ‘Goddess’ control—all while an apparent cult of mixed Fae races bow down to a giant golden statue of me a few feet away at the same time!”

He snorted in amusement, possibly because of my little jab about the way he panicked during our first grade-school swimming lesson, but more likely at the matter of fact tone that I stated the horrible potential mess facing us in just a few steps down into the light away from unfurling, in any number of possible ways that range from unthinkably bad to mind-bending craziness.

If only I could have some kind of bodyguard detail like you see celebrities have on TV or something. Not the gun-wielding army kind, like Pauly’s troops, obviously, but something a lot better suited to dealing with Fae in gener...al?
...We’re such an idiot sometimes...

“Felix, Mau, I need some help boys!”

I tried to keep my voice down, which was a pretty hard task when I wanted to call out for them loudly in order to make sure that they heard me. Luckily, the fear of being noticed by the Fae cult below us was more than enough to ensure my voice stayed at an even, conversational, level even if I did put more emphasis on it things than strictly necessary in my rush. After a few long seconds of silence there was the telltale muted pop and flash of flame that signifies Felix’s arrival, although oddly, I couldn’t see any shifts in the shadows to indicate Mau’s arrival despite my having called him.

Come to think of it, I haven’t actually seen Mau around at all since I got back out of my Realm. That alone is more than a bit worrying, considering how much the little fuzz-ball used to enjoy following either me or Eris around constantly before Crater Lake. I hope he’s okay. Maybe our connection snapped with the loss of my Core, in the same way my connection to Felix apparently did?

It’s weird, though, because Felix could still hear me call him, even without the familiar bond connecting us. So I honestly have no idea what could be going on with Mau if it’s not something as simple as ‘he couldn’t be bothered to answer me’, at least. He is a cat after all! Demon cat or not, he’s still a cat, and cats can be assholes like that sometimes, right?

...He’s probably fine...
Yeah, probably, I’m still a bit worried though—

======

“Lady-Death?”

My head snapped up and a reassuring smile came to my lips as I noticed the worried frown on Felix’s, usually pretty happy-looking, little face.

“Sorry, little buddy, just a bit worried about Mau…”
He frowned but nodded in understanding as I took a breath to carry on, despite my worries.
“How are things going with you and the other Imps, Felix?”

“Our-new-home is-amazing Lady-Death. We-have-a city of-our-own now and-we-can publicly-display-our-prayers at-last while playing-with the-new-metal-warpers!”

Felix’s little eyes were alight with joy and excitement as he spoke in a way I’ve never seen from him before, outside the times he’s gotten a little lost while having his head scratched, at least. His piece said, Felix turned in the air to inspect the area around us and paused when his eyes finally landed on the large golden statue of me sitting in the middle of the replica train station, at long last. Slowly he turned back around to face me with an embarrassed blush pretty obvious on his cute little face, despite his red fur covering the blush itself up, in much the same way that I could tell yesterday that Fena was blushing, despite not being physically able to do so from anything but her expression alone.

“That-is-a Faunus praise-statue. We-told-them that they-are in-bad-taste, especially the-self-updating ones, but they-will-pray-as-they-will-pray, no-matter what-we-say.”

To finish his apologetic-sounding mutter, Felix shrugged slightly and glanced down at the floor as if expecting me to yell at him over the whole thing. While it’s reassuring to know that Felix and his little army of imps don’t spend their day bowing down to giant statues of me, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still a problem in general that the bloody things exist in
the first place, naturally.

“How many of these ‘praise statues’ exist, exactly, Felix? And how many of them are now in public areas, like this one?”

The cringe on his little rounded face really didn’t fill me with overwhelming anticipation over the, obviously unambiguously good and nicely simple, answer he’s about to give me in the slightest, sadly.

“Faunus like-building with-gold and Goblins love-building with-gold—”

Not exactly the answer I was looking for, nor was it very reassuring in the slightest, Felix!

“With-your return from-the-dead. The-races are-celebrating your-presence again.”

When my expression didn’t change out of the pained grimace it seems now to be stuck in, thanks in no small part to his poorly covered attempt at avoiding telling me outright ‘there are a lot of those statues, Hannah’ he just tried to pull, Felix’s little shoulder sunk and he offered me a frankly adorable pout in the hope of calming me down, pre-emptively, which unfortunately worked like a charm, because I seriously have a weakness for cute imps in general.

“Putting that worrying detail to the side for now, then, Felix—”

His little shoulders relaxed in response to my words, obviously glad that I wasn’t angry at him, despite how illogical it would be of me to get mad at him just for being the messenger in all of this mess.

“We want to use the ‘metal warpers’, as you call them, to travel to Long Island quickly. To do that, I need help getting past that huge crowd of Lady Death worshipers without getting mobbed in the process.”

Finally he seemed to perk back up to his usual high spirits properly, his little wings flapping excitedly as he chittered to himself thoughtfully before answering me with a wide helpful smile on his sweet little face.

“The-Imps will defend-you and your-other-humans from-the-others. I know how to-ride the-new-metal-warpers so I-can-help-you get there Lady-Death.”

My own shoulders un-tensed at long last and I let out a heavy breath of relief as my hand came up to pet Felix on the head, much to his enjoyment, judging by the dopy little grin that formed quickly on his face in response to my touch. Now we just have to wait for the others to catch up and we can get out of here!

======

“Is everyone-ready, Lady-Death?”

I almost nodded back to him automatically without thinking but managed to catch myself in time to check first, just in case. A quick glance around us showed pretty much exactly what I’d been expecting to find at this point.

John stood to my left, his arms folded exasperatedly due to how many noisy beings and people we have hanging around us now, I’d assume. Sarah, and by extension Eris, are standing pretty close to my back, nervously, their eyes repeatedly being drawn back to the giant ‘Lady Death’ statue like twin moths to a flame while Trudy and Rosemary are hanging out with Pauly towards the back of our group. Pauly’s troops have spread themselves out in their usual, slightly over-the-top, fashion and Fena is busy—

“Fena, leave the poor imps alone!”

She jerked guiltily to a stop, mid-swipe, and dropped her hands back down to her side while quickly turning in an attempt to offer me an innocent look which may have been more effective if she’d either taken the time to hide her fangs like she used to do while smiling, or preferably, if she hadn’t been picking on an imp in general, considering they have her beaten in the ‘cute and sweet’ stakes, in my opinion.

The swarming crowd of ‘assistant security’ imps Felix drafted in to help us today all shot me thankful looks and, luckily for all our sakes, they had enough restraint not to start teasing Fena now that she’s stopped trying to grab them out of the air, a pretty impressive feat for the rather childish pranksters that imps tend to be usually.

“Okay, Felix, I think we’re ready, little buddy.”

Felix nodded back to me then called out for his troops to form up ranks, an action which Pauly somewhat unknowingly copied moments later with his own soldiers as we took our first step down into the huge, almost stadium sized, building full of Fae below us at long last.

The next few minutes were more than a little awkward. While no one actively tried to approach us, especially with the imps defending us from above and the soldiers defending from the ground, all eyes were on me with a mix of awe and almost reverent fear seeming to have been universally slapped onto everyone’s faces, as the few who didn’t just drop to their knees in my presence, froze stiff to watch us move past them all instead.

I found myself offering the Fae around us a slightly strained smile as we went on and even a few little finger waves at any particularly young looking Fae we passed, which had the rather unfortunate effect of making several older Fae around them fall over in what I can only hope was simply shock and not something more serious, like a collective round of heart attacks or something. Finally we got through the main concourse and found that, thankfully, my mind hadn’t complicated layout of Grand Central Station, because the single, wide hallway we entered near a row of empty kiosks led straight to some train tracks with a single car subway train waiting patiently for us to step straight on board.

Felix shot me a quick glance to make sure I was still okay before making his way out towards the front of the train where a larger than usual, as far as I know, control panel was situated behind a glass fronted partition door.

When we’d all gotten through the metal doors of the car, with imps clinging to pretty much every surface around us and Pauly’s troops guarding each window, I rather reluctantly took the chance to glance back behind us again and felt my heart skip a beat slightly when I came face to face with an entirely clogged hallway that happened to be filled with Fae of varying species and creeds. The moment I made eye contact with one of them accidentally they all began bowing down once more in reverence to me and slowly the chant started to build up in volume once more, with a worrying amount of fervor behind their words that I don’t think was present the first time I heard it.

“Bii-Sanya aba-aii, Bii-Sanya aba-aii, Bii-Sanya aba-aii”

A shudder went down my spine and I had to fight, hard to keep the following cringe off my face as everyone on board our train car turned to either stare at the source of the worrying chorus of little voices, or just at me in general.

Felix let off a yelping cheer that our bond didn’t need to translate for me to understand that it implied some sort of victory and with a hiss, the train car jolted forward slightly as noise started rumbling around us from all sides. Judging by the tone of the motors gearing up, I’d be tempted to assume that these ‘trains’ run on electricity like a normal one would but more realistically, considering Felix seems to think he will be able to get us across practically the whole of America relatively quickly in this one, I’d assume that those sounds aren’t actually part of the trains running process at all and are more there for aesthetics or authenticity’s sake.

Whatever magic John’s so-called ‘Lady Death’ thing that possessed me used to create all of his, really has drawn directly from my mind. A lot of half-formed ideas I’ve let grow over time in the back of mind seem to have been enacted in here as far as I can tell so far, so I honestly don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that everything around us is magical right now, no matter how real or normal they may appear at times.

Hopefully this journey won’t take too long and, if we’re lucky, I’ll be able to slip out of the Hub without any more problems at the other end. The odds of that are pretty low, my life being what it is, of course, but a girl can dream, right?
...Dream, yes. Believe, not so much...

Either way, I’m not hanging around in the Hub any more than I have to right now! As useful as this new connecting network may potentially be, I think it’s going to be a while before I feel safe enough around here to walk freely within the Hub’s newly improved hallways again, considering the large crowd of Fae that seem to have decided to take over the place properly now, with praise statues and devoted cults bowing down to me or not!

…Why can’t things ever just be simple?...