A few minutes later, things were moving along. But not nearly as quickly as I wanted them to. As evidenced by the fact that we were still standing around the front of the Haunted Mansion, rather than actually being on our way to wherever Gaia was being held. Marian, whom I kept catching myself staring at in wonder, was over on the grass with Tabbris and Dad. She was talking to them about how it felt to have a version of her own aunt and father merged with her, with our childhood memories. Which-- yeah, that would be weird, wouldn’t it? How would I deal with having my own father’s younger self merged with me t-- right, I wasn’t even gonna go down that particular rabbit hole at the moment. We didn’t have time for me to get lost in something like that.

  Honestly, there wasn’t any time to waste now. We'd already wasted more than enough. We needed to get Gaia out of that prison. Everything else could wait. She’d been trapped there far too fucking long by this point. Once we freed her, we could move on to other things. Like getting some answers out of my other self, my much older twin brother, or whatever you'd call him. And maybe, if things went incredibly well, I might even get a chance to spend five minutes with my girlfriends, or take a nap without waking up in a panic about how much I’d missed in that time.

  Hope springs eternal, Mountebank put in, but right now, let’s just focus on the saving Gaia part.

  Sending back silent agreement, I looked over at the floating crystal that had come out of the Haunted Mansion behind the rebel Committee members. It was about three feet tall and two feet wide, a blue semi-diamond shape with bright white swirls in it, and the whole thing seemed to be positively vibrating with energy. Of course it was, this was the crystal that now had all that power stored in it. Power we could use in that spell to locate Gaia. There was probably more magical energy in that single crystal right now than there was in almost any other single thing on the entire planet.

  Meanwhile, the four Committee members who had provided that power had already left. They had set up a thing to meet them later, but for the moment, they were off to try to do what they could about their counterparts being out there taking their fury out on any Alters in their path. I just had to hope the ones they were trying to protect didn’t end up getting killed in the crossfire.

  Then there was Puriel himself, who had also left. He was going to be up on the Olympus itself, running as much interference as he and the crew provided by Athena could, against Seosten intervention.

  So, we had the energy we needed. We had the descendent of Chadwick (my niece/daughter of my other self), and Aylen was on her way here with Avalon, whose blood was another key part of the spell. And we had the Reaper blood. Or rather, Avalon had that and was bringing it with her. The only piece we were missing right then was Professor Dare. Apparently Abigail was still working on contacting her. Which left me feeling more antsy than ever. Where the hell was she? Dare had been off the grid for a little while, but surely she wouldn’t make it impossible to contact her in an emergency? Especially an emergency like this, when we were finally going after Gaia’s prison. Dare would clearly want to be involved in that. So why wasn’t she responding to Abigail?

  There is a war going on, Mountebank pointed out. And it just became a lot more active. There's fighting going on all over the place. Between all that, and what's probably dozens of overlapping powers and spells blocking communications, is it really that surprising that she hasn't received the message yet? I know we’re pretty accustomed to expecting the worst, and this is a really big deal, but let's give her a little more time before we start planning funeral arrangements, okay?

  I seriously did not like his choice of words there, but I took his point. I was just really anxious to get on with this. There were too many ways everything could go wrong, too many open jugs of gasoline sitting near the flames that was this entire situation. We needed to get Gaia out of the prison before those jugs burned, and the resulting explosion destroyed absolutely everything.

  The metaphor kinda got away from me a bit, but the point was, things were really dangerous right now. The Loyalists had been kicked out of Crossroads island and were lashing out wildly. What had previously been a fairly cold (with pockets of violence) Boscher civil war was turning into an all-out rampage throughout the world. Things were getting pretty bad out there. For all we knew, Dare was in the middle of helping some group of Alters get to safety or something.

  Unfortunately, no sooner had I talked myself down from the ledge on that front, than Miranda threw up her hands while pacing back and forth around the crystal. “Where is she!? She has to know how important this whole thing is, so why can’t anyone contact her? I mean, isn’t there some sort of super-emergency alert thing we can send that tells her to check in right now?”

  “We tried that,” Abigail, who had just come into view through a portal, announced. “Or at least something close to that, an emergency message. It didn’t work, but we did get something else.”

  Aylen and Avalon were right behind her, with the latter immediately splitting off to head my way. I opened my arms and met her, grabbing Valley in a tight hug. For a moment, I lost myself in that. Yes, I still had the merged memories of having just seen the other girl two different times, during the Phoenix rift, and in our vacation. But I also had memories of all my other selves who hadn’t seen her in so long. To say nothing of all the time I’d spent in the past before the rifts were even a thing. With the memories of those other me’s put together, I’d been without either Avalon or Shiori for years. So, really, was it any wonder that I forgot everything else for a few seconds?

  I finally came back to myself, but that only lasted until I leaned back a bit and found my gaze locked with Valley’s. Just like that, I was lost in her eyes, feeling a pleasant, almost electric tingle run through me. The two of us stared at each other like that, before she leaned back in. Then we were kissing, and I forgot everything all over again. We hadn’t even said anything yet, but it didn’t matter. At that moment, all I cared about was that Valley was here. We were together again.

  Once I finally came up for air, still tightly clinging to the other girl, I panted a little and felt a blush cross my face. “I missed you too, babe. I can’t even tell you what sort of things--” It was only then that what Abigail had said before finally penetrated, making me blink that way. Not that I released Avalon, or even loosened my grip on her. If anything, I was holding the girl even tighter.

  Staring at Abigail from that position, I quickly asked, “Wait a minute, what do you mean, it didn’t work, but you got something else? The emergency contact spell fizzled? She never responded? Did she get it at all? What happened? What’d you get? Did she send something? How did you--”

  Avalon reached up to cover my mouth, raising an eyebrow with a fond, pretty smile that made my knees weak. “Chambers, how about you try giving her a chance to answer a question or two before you send another dozen at her?” Even as she gave that suggestion, she was rubbing one hand along my back, and quite frankly, I would’ve agreed to anything she said if she kept doing that.

  Once she could get a word in edgewise, thanks to Avalon, Abigail explained, “Yes, we tried a few emergency ways of contacting her. None of them worked. Not even the one that should have at least told us where she was. Whatever’s going on, she’s completely out of reach right now.” She quickly pushed on, but not before heavy panic had already started to settle into the pit of my stomach. “But we did get a… ah, I think she should be the one to tell you about it.” Even as she said that, Abigail was looking expectantly back toward the portal they’d come through.

  I thought nothing could make me release Avalon right then. But then I saw the person who stepped into view. Shiori. She was with Asenath, both of them looking around as they appeared.

  As a soft noise of surprise escaped me at the sight of my other girlfriend, Valley immediately gave me a little push, chuckling softly. “Go. If we’re saving Gaia, I need you to be able to focus.”

  Honestly, I wasn’t even consciously aware of crossing that distance. The next thing I knew, I was lifting Shiori off the ground as she yelped with delight. We kissed and embraced. I knew we had to get on with it, but I just… needed a second with her. What I really wanted was about twelve hours of uninterrupted time with both my girls. But I’d settle for a few seconds, at least for now.

  Only the fact that this was about Gaia convinced me to focus after those seconds. Still, I held the other girl’s hands, squeezing them while stammering a confused, “What happened? What do you guys have to do with what’s going on with Dare?” My eyes just kept darting back and forth between Shiori and Asenath, my confusion rising even more as they exchanged brief glances.

  Finally, Shiori managed to speak up. “It’s Tiras. He, err, got a package from Professor Dare. It was a magic delivery. I guess she had really limited options about how to send it. The spell had to send it to someone she considers family, and… well, it was either Tiras as an adoptive father, or Gaia as an adoptive mother. She doesn’t exactly have any other family. None that are alive, anyway.”

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  She did, actually. She had her daughter, who was my mother, Koren, me, even Wyatt and Abigail. She had other options, but she couldn’t use them without exposing the fact that we were related. Just as I couldn’t actually correct Shiori on that point, much as I would’ve liked to. Keeping the Fomorians off Earth was just a little more important than telling everyone who Dare really was.

  So, sure, it made sense that she wouldn’t admit we were related to her, even when sending an emergency package. At least whatever spell she’d used for that actually allowed her to use an adoptive father like Tiras. Especially when, as far as I knew, his memories were still on the fritz. If ‘on the fritz’ was what you’d call, ‘being completely removed.’ It was… eh, just a whole thing. The point was, apparently the spell let her use him for that even though he didn’t remember any of that time with her. She remembered, and that was enough as far as the spell was concerned.

  “What was in the package?” I asked, before quickly amending, “Wait, new question, where is she? Why can’t she respond to any of the ways we’re trying to contact her? What’s with this--” My hand caught Avalon’s before she could reach in to cover my mouth again. “Sorry, go ahead.”

  The fact that Shiori barely smiled at that told me just how serious the situation was out there. “Uh, the package was blood. I mean there was a vial of blood in it. And a note saying she knew we’d need that to help Gaia, but that… with what she’s dealing with right now, she can’t make it back here in time. She said she couldn’t get into it with a note, but we’d understand eventually.”

  That left me blinking a few times. “Err, can’t make it back here? What-- where is-- I don’t even… This is about Gaia and she can’t make it?” I opened and shut my mouth, trying to process all that. But I just had no idea how to even start.

  “Yeah.” That was Senny, watching me react as she nodded slowly. “That’s how I’ve been ever since Papa handed me the package and told me it just appeared in front of him with that note.”

  Abigail was over talking to my dad. Apparently he was giving her the news about who Marian was, because she kept whipping her head back and forth to stare at me, then her, and back again. And it was clear that Senny and Shiori both had good enough hearing to pick it up, because they were doing the same thing, looking completely taken aback.

  Soon enough, Abigail shook that off and focused. “We don’t know what’s going on with Virginia. But her message was clear that she wants us to go ahead with the plan to rescue Gaia, and she provided the blood we need for that. Which means, as far as I know, we have everything now?”

  Aylen nodded. “We have the spell instructions, and the blood from Avalon, Professor Dare, and now… Chadwick’s descendant.” That last bit came as she glanced a bit searchingly at Marian.

  “Yup,” the other girl confirmed, sitting there in the grass with Tabbris perched in her lap. “That’s me. But if you’re taking my blood, I’m gonna have to insist I get to help participate in the rescue.”

  My mouth opened to tell her it was too dangerous, before I stopped and marveled at how quickly that protective instinct had kicked in. Was this how my family felt all the time, whenever I said I was going to do… well, anything, really? By this point, after everything we’d been through, I was kind of surprised they didn’t demand I take an armed escort with me just to visit the restroom.

  But, now wasn’t the time to get hung up on all that. And it certainly wasn’t the time to get into all the family talk I wanted to. We had all the ingredients we needed for the spell, so there was no point in standing around. Aylen and Avalon both had the instructions completely memorized, but they still produced the note with it all written down. Rather than having us do it out here in the open courtyard, however, Laein took us to one of the spell testing rooms. I wasn’t sure if that was more for some extra privacy, or so we wouldn’t mess up the school if the spell went wrong.

  Yeah, probably both. But either way, we carefully set everything up in there, following those detailed instructions bit by bit. With all of us working together, it didn’t take long to get the whole thing prepared and ready to set off.

  Except we weren’t going to trigger it just yet. Not until we were totally ready to go. There was no way we were gonna take the chance of anything going wrong. Not when it came to saving Gaia.

  Speaking of not taking chances, Abigail was standing on the far side of the room, clearly listening to a silent voice from one of the Committee members, who was giving her updates about what was going on out there. We were waiting until we were sure that all of the Loyalist Committee people were involved in a fight. The ones on our side were intentionally drawing them in, or just ambushing places they already were. Anything to make sure they were busy for those few crucial minutes. Even then, we were gonna have to do this as quickly as possible.

  “In and out,” Aylen was saying, like she had read my mind. “Whatever happens, whatever we see there, we don’t stay and get drawn into a long fight. We smash in, save Gaia and anyone else they might have there, then leave again. Hit them hard and fast before they summon help.”

  With a nod, Avalon put in, “So far, they’ve relied heavily on no one knowing where they are. But that doesn’t mean they’re helpless. These guards were handpicked by the Committee to be able to keep Gaia contained, and stop anyone else from getting to her.” She took a deep breath. “But we do have one other thing going for us. Sophronia and Teach were each able to include one of their own choices. So, we’ve got two guards who will switch to our side and help us get Gaia out as soon as we show up and let them know who we are. That’s two guards out of the fourteen.”

  “Fourteen might not seem like too many,” Aylen noted, “especially when that immediately turns into twelve. But these aren’t students, or semi-retired Boschers with families and other jobs. These are fully-trained, highly-skilled, top of the line soldiers, who were each specifically picked by the Committee Loyalists because they know how to fight and kill other Boschers.”

  “Not to mention,” Abigail reminded us, “they won’t be the only ones there.”

  Avalon was nodding. “Right, fourteen Boschers inside the prison itself, with two being on our side. But there’ll be others nearby, based on the outside of the prison, and we have no idea where or how many. And even if we’re just going by the ones inside, they’ve got the home court advantage. They’ve got plenty of magic and technological security, and all the time in the world to have set it up to their advantage.”

  Dad’s hand rose. “I can help with that, somewhat. I’ve got a whole bag of spells ready to counter things. But I can’t turn off everything they’ll have. Not if we’re gonna get in and out before they can call reinforcements.”

  Avalon nodded, informing us, “Which is where having two of them on our side is going to make the difference. They’ll help disable some of the worst security measures. Hopefully enough to give us the chance we need to get in there and get out again before reinforcements show up. But the two who are on our side don’t know when we’re coming, or who is coming. So, we just have to hope they react quickly enough, because we can’t send any sort of advance warning.”

  Then it was Aylen’s turn again. “When it all goes down, they’ll identify themselves by saying, ‘The red lady can sing if she wants to.’ You all have that? ‘The red lady can sing if she wants to.’ We don’t hurt those two. We do everything we can to get them out with us, because they’ll be dead if we don’t. The Loyalists will see them as traitors, and take everything out on them.” She glanced my way before grimacing slightly. “Especially after what just happened with the school.”

  Everyone was looking at me by that point. Feeling a warm blush creep up over my neck, I cleared my throat. “Yeah, well, we’ll just have to get them out of there so that doesn’t happen, then. And believe me, guys, I wanna talk to Jacob about all that as much as any of you.” My own gaze shifted toward Marian. “There’s a lot we all need to talk about. But we can’t right now. Besides, saving Gaia is a bit more important. One thing at a time, and that’s a pretty big thing.”

  Dad was already smiling proudly, his expression making the blush of mine deepen. “They do seem to know what they’re talking about, don’t they?” When he said that, I heard more than just pride in his voice. There was sadness too, and regret. It made me wonder just how many conflicting emotions he had right then. Which, in turn, made me wonder how my mother was feeling. She was the one who was still out there fighting, who couldn’t even take a break yet. I was here, I’d made it back to the present, and I still hadn’t seen my mother yet, because of all this shit. Hell, Dad and I were about to go visit the secret Crossroads superprison, and she still couldn’t risk taking the time to see us first. Not when doing so would mean leaving innocent civilians to die. I couldn’t spend time with my mother now because the Loyalists would kill more people.

  Which just reminded me that Avalon hadn’t seen her mother for a year. So, I pushed all those thoughts aside and focused. Just in time, too, because Abigail abruptly straightened up. “That’s it, they’ve got them. All the Loyalist Committee people are accounted for, and being occupied.”

  “We get in, we get Gaia, we get out.” That was me, looking over everyone who was going. Which didn’t include Abigail, but did include Laein. So, we would be going in there with Asenath (who had just taken blood from her sister, so she could use her powers), Shiori herself, Avalon (of course), Aylen, Miranda, Laein (with her giant tiger), Dad, Percy and Cerberus, Marian, and me. With Tabbris riding shotgun right alongside Mountebank within me. It wasn’t exactly the strongest force in the world. But with basically all the Loyalists attacking everything they could see, we couldn’t risk pulling anyone else off the front lines. This was it. We’d just have to make do, and hope it was enough to get in and out of there.

  With a nod to our dad, Tabbris stepped over and then into me as our hands joined. At the same time, Aylen and Avalon triggered the spell that would tell us where to go. That spell was already tied into a transport spell. We didn’t want to give those people any warning, just in case they had some way of being alerted if their location was magically uncovered. The second it identified their location, we would be sent right there.

  A pleasant, cheerful ding filled the air. The first part of the spell did its job. And then the second one kicked in. I felt a wave of tingling energy run over me, as the view around us faded out. We were transported. No more waiting, no more planning. We were going for it, right now.

  It was finally time to get Gaia back.

  Joke Tags: Don’t Worry? Flick? I’m Sure Whatever Is Going On With Dare Isn’t That Big Of A Deal