Will Everybody Stop Vanishing for Five Minutes (female!Klaus AU)
Title: Will Everybody Stop Vanishing for Five Minutes
Authors: khilari and persephone_kore
Summary: In which Nikola charges all over revenant-filled Europa with the Jäger horde while pregnant.
Nikola's pregnancy grew markedly less uncomfortable after the first few months, but given the regularity with which they all generally got knocked around, she resigned herself to abstaining from adventures all the same. Her mother was somewhat astounded to hear that Nikola had restricted herself for safety's sake to sparring with the Jägers.
"I could teach you how to stay out of the thick of things, you know," Lucrezia offered over breakfast one day.
Nikola looked at her doubtfully over a piece of toast. They were still annoyed with each other over that stupid business with the Jägers, but she thought this was probably a sincere offer. If only because Lucrezia might be tired of her company. "You could try."
Lucrezia did try. Nikola listened politely and asked all the right questions and then Lucrezia asked hopefully if she thought she might put it into practice. And then they had their first good laugh together in weeks.
This might have put Nikola a little too far off her guard. She went looking for Lucrezia a few days later because she'd found a butterfly munching a spiderroach, which was clearly either Lucrezia's doing or something that would interest her. Lucrezia had gone to her room earlier. This was Castle Heterodyne, so naturally when she didn't find her there, Nikola started looking for secret passages.
In retrospect, maybe she shouldn't have opened with a cheerful, "Hah! Found you!" when she finally reached the bottom of the stairs. Lucrezia and her Geisterdame assistant whirled with matching furious expressions, and Nikola had barely time to process the Muse chained to the wall before she found herself waking up.
She seemed to be on a bed. Not a terribly comfortable bed, but there was definitely a blanket involved and she couldn't feel any restraints, so it almost certainly wasn't a slab. She could hear someone else breathing and tried opening her eyes just a tiny bit. This didn't work because her eyelids seemed to be gummed together.
A damp thumb rubbed across them. Nikola had the uncomfortable suspicion it had just been licked, but she wasn't really in a position to quibble, so she just looked up.
The woman kneeling over her was distinctly not Lucrezia. The lighting was terrible, but this woman was tall, muscular, and appeared to have golden skin and green hair. She also sat back on her heels almost at once to give Nikola more space. Nikola decided she liked her. She sat up carefully -- the bed was a thin mattress flat to the floor -- and realized that the room had a strong air of being a prison cell and that they were both stark naked and in some need of a bath.
Nikola rubbed a hand across her forehead and muttered, "I am an idiot."
The other woman touched her own forehead and said, in somewhat bitter tones, "Zantabraxus, erek Skifander."
Nikola lifted her head sharply. She was a long way from home. How had Lucrezia-- Well, that was probably a question for slightly later, as it didn't look like she could use the answer to get out of the cell. She started by tapping herself on the forehead more emphatically and saying, "Nikola. Nikola. Wulfenbach Heterodyne--" She paused, trying to scrape together vocabulary while Zantabraxus looked curious and mildly exasperated. Everything she knew of Skifander was from when Barry and Lucrezia had wound up there years ago in some sort of portal accident. Bill and Dr. Mongfish had argued heatedly over who had kidnapped whom until their return, full of fascinating stories and heartily sick of each other's company.
With some difficulty, she managed to convey that her name was Nikola, not idiot, and that she was a friend of Barry Heterodyne and currently very annoyed with Lucrezia Mongfish. Zantabraxus seemed to think this was reasonable. Unfortunately, the next thing she managed to get across was that she was also a prisoner, extinguishing Nikola's fading hope that the Spark queen had simply been too caught up in work to attend to her personal hygiene before investigating a prisoner. (That wasn't exactly unusual. And while Nikola was personally in favor of protective gear in the laboratory, armour in battle, and pockets all the time, neither Barry nor Lucrezia had really given her the impression that Skifandrians were much for utilitarian clothing.) Explaining to each other how they'd ended up in their current fix temporarily defeated them, but they had time to work it out in between figuring out how to escape.
Zantabraxus proved to be a very strong Spark. Her captors had stripped her -- and Nikola -- not for prurient reasons but for fear of what she'd do with any kind of equipment. Given the things she muttered about her lost jewellery Nikola had to think this had been prudent.
The bed, as it turned out, had been an unwise concession. It had also been a mistake not to search Nikola's tumbled braid more carefully for lurking hairpins... and to overlook the strength her scars warned of... and the chemical properties of the food the two of them managed to hide by judiciously stinting themselves.
And the fury, even among Zantabraxus's rivals, that outsiders had dared to threaten their queen to make them cooperate.
When Zantabraxus had retaken her throne, Nikola was treated as an honoured guest, which was much more comfortable, while they tried to work out how to get her home. This was more complicated than the relative brevity of Barry and Lucrezia's stay might have suggested.
Queen Luheia's Mirror used to connect to somewhere in Europa... probably. They were almost sure Skifander and Europa occupied the same dimension. That was a start. She ought to be able to navigate home, but it would be a long trip. Nikola hated to keep everybody waiting -- Barry would worry, the Jägers were probably all upset, and goodness only knew what Lucrezia had told them all -- but faced with the alarming prospect of going into labour while travelling alone, she was seriously considering whether she should wait and give birth in Skifander.
"You're welcome to stay here as long as you like, of course," said Zantabraxus, whose thoughts seemed to have been cast along the same lines by their mess of calculations. "I know it would be better to have your husband to look after it, but you must be nearly ready to lay your egg by now."
Nikola put her pen down, rubbed one ear, and regarded the Queen of Skifander uncertainly. "Egg? Like... a bird?"
"Well, more like a lizard," Zantabraxus said, frowning.
"I'm expecting a... a live birth," Nikola said. "No shell. And not for a few months yet."
Zantabraxus stared at her. "Oh, dear. Some of our livestock... um... I don't mean to insult you, but that doesn't always go easily and I think the only people who really have much experience with it are veterinarians...."
"I'm not insulted," Nikola assured her faintly. "But, you know, maybe we could have another look at the Mirror."
Determination was a powerful thing. A few weeks later Nikola plunged into Queen Luheia's mirror and out into an unfamiliar part of the Red Cathedral in Mechanicsburg -- as verified by the Abbess charging in a few seconds later. Unfortunately the Abbess seemed more inclined to hang on to her arm and ask incoherent questions than tell her how to get upstairs. When Nikola found her way out despite this interference, the Abbess let her go precipitously as Gkika came pounding up to engulf her in a hug.
"Hy is zo glad to see hyu." A clawed hand settled over Nikola's belly and Gkika asked with some urgency. "The baby iz hokay?"
The baby kicked against Gkika's palm. "Fine," Nikola said. "Sorry, I got--" She looked up, over Gkika's shoulder, toward the Castle, and -- no. No. The silhouette was wrong, it looked slumped, that -- "Gkika. What happened?"
Gkika's ears folded down. "Der Kestle voz blown up. Ve thott by the people who took hyu und Lucrezia."
"Ah--" Nikola realised she was staring as if transfixed and dragged her gaze back to Gkika's face. "Lucrezia sent me to Skifander. Somehow."
"Vot? Then vere did she go?"
"I have no idea!" Nikola worked a hand into her hair. "She didn't look like she was planning to go anywhere!" She hadn't looked like she was planning to blow the Castle up, either. Nikola was astonished by the idea that anybody had managed to do that much damage to it. But Lucrezia must have been up to something, if she didn't want to be caught -- had this been it, or had she been interrupted again? It must have been before Bill and Barry even got back.... "How bad was it? Was Adam--" Gkika's expression said everything. "Oh, no."
"It voz over before ve arrived," said Gkika. Other Jägers were approaching, now, stopping to stare at Nikola with something almost like hunger. "Master William's child voz dead, ve thott Master Barry's lost along with hyu. Und they left to look for hyu. Ve had to stay behind, ve haff not heard from them since."
"What." Nikola shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "No, that's just like them. Idiots." Naturally they'd charge off and never think to write home. Too busy, too distracted, too worried. No wonder Gkika had come thundering to check on her baby. It was one thing for Bill and Barry to go off adventuring when Mechanicsburg was secure. To have them searching for someone who'd broken Castle Heterodyne, killed the heir, and apparently spirited off both their wives.... "But I'd expect you to have heard something from someone. They're not usually inconspicuous."
"Things are vorse den hyu think," said Gkika, shifting an arm around Nikola's back as if she might need support. "Hyu are seeing the damage to Mechanicsburg, und ve are one of the most intact. Things haff been bad, normal communication iz not happening. Ve hear about dem all the time, but it iz rumour, and effen dey cannot be effryvhere ve haff been told." She sighed. "Although they probably are as much in de thick of tings as ve hear."
"I don't doubt that," Nikola said. And it was just like Mechanicsburg to take this long to tell her things were worse everywhere else. She supposed that was a little unfair; she'd barely been back fifteen minutes. "I'm going to need a detailed update." Based on rumours. Oh dear. "Well, as much detail as you've got, anyway. Take me somewhere with a table." Gkika's supportive hug was somehow making her more worried. Obviously Bill and Barry were in trouble, but it was sort of their natural state. How bad were things? ...And if there had been personal spite involved.... "Ah, what about Wulfenbach?"
"Ah." Gkika's arm tightened. "Ve did go there, it voz not far so ven ve heard ve thought the Masters vould not mind. It iz... not good. Much of it voz smashed und other Sparks got there before uz. Ve did not find hyu parents. Hy am sorry."
Nikola's hands curled into fists and she turned her face against Gkika's shoulder for a moment, fighting the urge to cry or snarl. Not that the Jägers would blame her for either one. Who could? She drew in one shaky breath and then lifted her head and said, as steadily as she could, "I need to know everything. And once I do, we are going to make sure anybody left in Wulfenbach is as safe as we can make them, and then we are going to go find Bill and Barry."
There was a brief silence and then a cheer that managed to also be a snarl and a roar from the gathering Jägers.
Khrizhan came through, pushing smaller Jägers aside as the excitement spread, and stopped in front of Nikola. "Iz goot to haff hyu home," he said, patting her shoulder with force that might have knocked a weaker person down. "Und in fighting spirit. But hyu cannot overrule the Heterodyne."
Nikola tilted her chin up, feeling her pulse beat in her temples, her hands itch to build, to fight, to do anything. "Of course not. What exactly did he tell you, again?"
"To stay and guard Mechanicsburg und vait for them to return," said Gkika.
Nikola nodded in understanding. "Of course Mechanicsburg must be defended," she said. "Especially with the Castle damaged. I certainly didn't mean to suggest everyone needs to come. I will go and do those things." She rested a hand on her belly, conscious of drawing every eye in the crowd, and got another firm kick from Barry's child in response. "Generals, I'll trust you to determine what kind of escort is appropriate."
That got another fierce cheer and a cry of "ken ve volunteer" from someone Nikola thought might have been Maxim.
Gkika and Khrizhan's eyes met. "General Gkika, hyu should take charge of escort for the Lady Heterodyne," Khrizhan said.
Gkika grinned, ears perked up and eyes shining red. "It vill be my pleasure."
Nikola kept feverishly busy. It helped keep her from being stunned. First, while Gkika handled the travel preparations, she started modifying some of Mechanicsburg's weaponry to be used without the Castle's direct help. This gave the Castle the opportunity to complain bitterly about her leaving. It couldn't actually stop her anymore, which was fortunate but still deeply chilling.
Second was the rescue of Wulfenbach. Even with Gkika's warning, she felt her heart seize when she saw it. And she vomited for the first time in months -- and maybe the first time in her life for purely psychological reasons -- after they surprised revenants stripping the flesh from livestock and farmers alike. Maybe someday she could rebuild. For now she scoured her parents' lands -- her lands -- and simply packed everyone she could find behind Mechanicsburg's walls.
She rode back out in a grimmer mood by far. It still wasn't clear what had happened in Mechanicsburg, but there had been fighting, and most of the dead including poor Adam had fallen to secondary damage to the Castle. But this? If this was Lucrezia's doing, Nikola was going to kill her.
Bill and Barry weren't usually hard to find -- if they weren't in the heart of the chaos, they'd probably turn up there before long. This principle was a lot less useful when she had most of a continent to search and most of that was a disaster area. Nikola made a list of the most promising recent rumours and then started by leading her Jäger escort to the nearest friendly towns that were not Spark-run and thus probably not directly targeted. They generally were less than thrilled at the arrival of a small horde of Jägers -- it turned out she and her baby warranted a very satisfactory escort -- but once they got a good look at her, they tended to concede that if she must go charging around the countryside at all she should certainly have a small army along. Especially if it camped outside. She made up for the alarm by improving their defences for them and left behind collections of messenger clanks, requesting that any useful information be sent directly back to Mechanicsburg.
She wouldn't have been at all surprised if Bill and Barry had heard about her and come to ask where she'd been and what she was doing dragging Jägers all over the place. Instead she brought her horde sweeping down on a swarm of warrior wasps that hadn't quite overrun a tiny hillside hamlet, and when the air cleared -- enough to see, if not to smell anything but smoke and death -- one of the defenders let a death ray clatter to the ground, stared at her, and croaked, "Nikola?"
Someone taller abruptly stood up from a crouch behind him, looking just as stunned, and she'd found them, she'd found them. By the time Nikola scrambled down out of her clank's cockpit they'd both run up to her; Bill checked himself barely long enough to let Barry hug her first and then wrapped his arms around them both.
Nikola hugged them both back fiercely. "What were you thinking?" she demanded at the same time, just managing not to yell in their ears. "Vanishing like that, no one had any idea where you were."
"We were looking for you!" Barry said. Which was not the point. Bill inhaled slightly. "--And Lucrezia," Barry added. "Where were you? What happened?"
"I was in Skifander." This was probably not the right time to tell them, but there was never going to be a right time to tell them and at least Bill was already being hugged. "Thanks to Lucrezia sending me there when I caught her doing something in the Castle basement."
Bill stiffened. Barry looked up at both of them. "...Oh, hell. Do you think she--"
"Not her style," Bill said grimly, "except for the bugs."
Barry stared at him and demanded, "Have you been suspecting that all this time?"
Bill looked away. "I don't know. Somebody destroyed her work; I don't know why she'd have done that. Could've imagined it. The Other could've made her work for him. We have to find her regardless." He leaned his forehead against Nikola's temple for a moment. "I'm sorry. Glad you're back, though."
"You idiot," said Nikola. "If you thought it was Lucrezia, that she was capable of this, from the start then you definitely needed back up. Not to mention that you should have told Mechanicsburg! What if she'd turned up there while you were gone?"
"In Mechanicsburg I thought you'd both been kidnapped," Bill said, looking tired and miserable. "After taking apart some of the wasps... I don't know."
"I don't think either of us was exactly rational when we left," Barry said against her shoulder. Nikola believed that but didn't have time to say so. "I didn't even think of-- we can send a message back."
"Pretty easily," Bill said, letting them go and looking around. The Jägers had drawn close, surrounding them, and while at least half were remembering to watch outward at any given time, all of them kept sneaking glances. "You brought the Jägers?"
"Some of them," said Nikola. "Nobody seriously thought you meant them to keep me prisoner or let me run around a war zone by myself. Even if you were doing it."
Bill snorted. "...I'm not sure you should be running around a war zone at all, but no, I wouldn't have expected them to stop you." He was looking straight at Gkika and Nikola thought she might've relaxed a bit.
"I wasn't going to stay in Mechanicsburg and wait for you to remember to send a message," said Nikola. "Besides, staying safe until the baby's born isn't going to do any good if it just winds up born into this mess and nobody's fixed anything."
"We're trying," said Bill.
"So am I," said Nikola. "And now we can join forces."
Among the crowd of Jägers Dimo cleared his throat. "Hokay, ve get hyu vant to fix things, but if hyu fix Mechanicsburg the baby vill be fine voteffer happens to effryvere else."
It occurred to Nikola that the Jägers had mostly been enthusiastic about coming with her because she was trying to find their Heterodynes and now they were all together they'd be just as happy if they all went home. However happy Jägers usually were about going into battle with their Heterodynes, they'd just been through a very uncertain time and probably wanted them safe. They didn't get a vote, though, and neither Nikola nor Bill and Barry were likely to leave everyone else to their fate.
Bill turned a burning look on Dimo. "Oh, will he? Like Adam is?"
Dimo flinched. "Sorry," he muttered. Nikola wasn't sure whether he was apologising for saying that or for failing to protect Adam -- realistically there was nothing the Jägers could have done, but they blamed themselves for failing to protect a Heterodyne in their own town.
Bill paced, halfway between Nikola and Barry and the circle of Jägers. "What happened once can happen again. Even if it was Lucrezia, it wasn't just her." Nikola pursed her lips. Lucrezia slitting a throat was plausible; Lucrezia winning the kind of knife fight suggested by the evidence in her laboratories all by herself did seem unlikely. "This all has to end."
Gkika stepped forward and picked Bill up. "If hyu say so then ve is behind hyu. Start by not vasting energy ven hyu look about to keel over."
Bill, who had made any number of speeches without being interrupted in this fashion (...many other fashions, but not being hoisted in the air like a child) stared levelly and somewhat incredulously at his general. Nikola tried very hard not to laugh and ended up with a deeply embarrassing squeak in the back of her throat.
"I think hugging you was the longest he's been still in months when we weren't trying to ambush something," muttered Barry.
"All right," Bill said finally. "So put me down and make camp."
Gkika set him back on his feet looking smug and around them Jägers hurried to set up tents and light fires.
"Once we've got somewhere to sit we need to consolidate information," said Nikola, once she'd recovered a bit.
"Good idea," Bill said drily, rejoining them. "If we can avoid being put down for a nap first."
"You look like you could use one," said Nikola. "I wouldn't tempt anyone if I was you."
No one dropped by to put them to bed but Miron picked that moment to show up with a large plate of roast and seasoned wasp.
"Did hyu vant some?" he asked, proffering it to Barry. "Hyu look hungry."
Barry did look hungry. He also looked disturbed. "Have you been eating those? We know the little ones turn people into revenants."
"Ho yez, iz delicious," said Miron.
Nikola coughed. "They're immune, even to the little ones. I haven't eaten any wasp, but I'm sure they just think I'm being squeamish."
Barry looked pained. "You let -- never mind, it's not like we can keep them out of people's throats who don't want to eat bugs on purpose." He gave Miron a wan smile. "Smells great, but I think we'd better pass."
"Hokay." Miron left but by the time they'd got seats set up around a fire of their own he was back with soup that he insisted wasn't wasp.
They accepted the soup. Bill and Barry obviously were ravenous, given how fast it disappeared. Miron returned with more bowls and, to Nikola's amusement, a pressure cooker. "What is in it?" Barry asked, halfway through his second bowl.
"If you can't tell but you like it," said Bill, "do you necessarily want to know?"
Barry frowned at his brother. "Where is your scientific curiosity?"
“Dis und dat,” said Miron. "Dry rations, sqvirrel, zum nize caterpillars, nettles."
"I'm impressed." Barry fished out what Nikola now supposed must be a caterpillar. "I thought those were awfully meaty for noodles."
"Hyu don't find many noodles vhile marching," said Miron, with a flash of toothy grin at the compliment.
"Sometimes," Barry said around the caterpillar, a bit bleakly, "that depends on if the last revenants through were too far gone to identify them as food or not."
Nikola remembered the ones she'd seen in Wulfenbach and winced. The Jägers were disturbed by the revenants, but not for that reason.
"You'd better tell me what you've worked out about the revenants and I'll share what I've seen," she said, turning her mind to practical matters. "Now we've got food and shelter we may as well get started."
They talked about the wasps and the revenants, trying to stay technical and practical if only because of the overwhelming emotion behind the stories they were telling. Nikola still choked up a bit when she told them about Wulfenbach and wound up with Barry pulling her half onto his lap. The Jägers tactfully kept their distance, but Nikola didn't -- quite -- cry.
Bill and Barry's stories were close to some of Nikola's. Fighting, shoring up what they could, too many situations where they couldn't save everyone, where the fates of those they couldn't left them stumbling over words, eyes hollow. They'd had it worse. She'd had an army and, even if it was their own fault for leaving a perfectly good one behind, they'd been through hell. Bill started pacing halfway through the story of a town they'd saved (partly, mostly) and couldn't be convinced to stop again.
Finally they got onto the subject of where Lucrezia might be and Nikola said, "Wherever she is she might have got there by portal. Did you know there's one in the Cathedral basement?"
Bill's footsteps halted. Barry looked over his shoulder at him. "Um... news to me."
"Maybe I should have stayed longer," Bill said doubtfully. "Then again I don't think Dr Yglyn was feeling very chatty even after the dentist got done. Is that how you got back?"
Nikola, having heard the story of Dr Yglyn trying to test an understandably jumpy new Heterodyne with the "knife of wisdom", was less confused about where a dentist came in than she might have been. Apparently he was fine with ceremonial teeth these days. "Yes. It's connected to one with ceremonial importance in Skifander. One which we managed to get working eventually."
"The gates of the warrior women!" Barry said abruptly. "We've run across a couple of references in relation to the first Heterodyne sneaking up on people that mostly sounded like an exaggeration of knowing the mountain passes. But if there's a standing portal connection between Mechanicsburg and Skifander...."
Bill started circling again. "We'll have to go back. It seems like the wasps and whatever's hitting Sparks are just falling from the sky, but if there are portals involved they could be starting anywhere."
The Jägers in hearing distance cheered and Nikola found herself unexpectedly trying not to laugh. "Everyone will be relieved to see you, they've been hanging on every rumour," she said.
Barry, at least, had the grace to look a little sheepish. "We haven't really been thinking about sending updates."
"I noticed," said Nikola, drily.
"I can still hardly believe you're back."
Nikola wrapped an arm around him and rested her head against his. "Get used to it, you won't be getting rid of me any time soon."
Authors: khilari and persephone_kore
Summary: In which Nikola charges all over revenant-filled Europa with the Jäger horde while pregnant.
Nikola's pregnancy grew markedly less uncomfortable after the first few months, but given the regularity with which they all generally got knocked around, she resigned herself to abstaining from adventures all the same. Her mother was somewhat astounded to hear that Nikola had restricted herself for safety's sake to sparring with the Jägers.
"I could teach you how to stay out of the thick of things, you know," Lucrezia offered over breakfast one day.
Nikola looked at her doubtfully over a piece of toast. They were still annoyed with each other over that stupid business with the Jägers, but she thought this was probably a sincere offer. If only because Lucrezia might be tired of her company. "You could try."
Lucrezia did try. Nikola listened politely and asked all the right questions and then Lucrezia asked hopefully if she thought she might put it into practice. And then they had their first good laugh together in weeks.
This might have put Nikola a little too far off her guard. She went looking for Lucrezia a few days later because she'd found a butterfly munching a spiderroach, which was clearly either Lucrezia's doing or something that would interest her. Lucrezia had gone to her room earlier. This was Castle Heterodyne, so naturally when she didn't find her there, Nikola started looking for secret passages.
In retrospect, maybe she shouldn't have opened with a cheerful, "Hah! Found you!" when she finally reached the bottom of the stairs. Lucrezia and her Geisterdame assistant whirled with matching furious expressions, and Nikola had barely time to process the Muse chained to the wall before she found herself waking up.
She seemed to be on a bed. Not a terribly comfortable bed, but there was definitely a blanket involved and she couldn't feel any restraints, so it almost certainly wasn't a slab. She could hear someone else breathing and tried opening her eyes just a tiny bit. This didn't work because her eyelids seemed to be gummed together.
A damp thumb rubbed across them. Nikola had the uncomfortable suspicion it had just been licked, but she wasn't really in a position to quibble, so she just looked up.
The woman kneeling over her was distinctly not Lucrezia. The lighting was terrible, but this woman was tall, muscular, and appeared to have golden skin and green hair. She also sat back on her heels almost at once to give Nikola more space. Nikola decided she liked her. She sat up carefully -- the bed was a thin mattress flat to the floor -- and realized that the room had a strong air of being a prison cell and that they were both stark naked and in some need of a bath.
Nikola rubbed a hand across her forehead and muttered, "I am an idiot."
The other woman touched her own forehead and said, in somewhat bitter tones, "Zantabraxus, erek Skifander."
Nikola lifted her head sharply. She was a long way from home. How had Lucrezia-- Well, that was probably a question for slightly later, as it didn't look like she could use the answer to get out of the cell. She started by tapping herself on the forehead more emphatically and saying, "Nikola. Nikola. Wulfenbach Heterodyne--" She paused, trying to scrape together vocabulary while Zantabraxus looked curious and mildly exasperated. Everything she knew of Skifander was from when Barry and Lucrezia had wound up there years ago in some sort of portal accident. Bill and Dr. Mongfish had argued heatedly over who had kidnapped whom until their return, full of fascinating stories and heartily sick of each other's company.
With some difficulty, she managed to convey that her name was Nikola, not idiot, and that she was a friend of Barry Heterodyne and currently very annoyed with Lucrezia Mongfish. Zantabraxus seemed to think this was reasonable. Unfortunately, the next thing she managed to get across was that she was also a prisoner, extinguishing Nikola's fading hope that the Spark queen had simply been too caught up in work to attend to her personal hygiene before investigating a prisoner. (That wasn't exactly unusual. And while Nikola was personally in favor of protective gear in the laboratory, armour in battle, and pockets all the time, neither Barry nor Lucrezia had really given her the impression that Skifandrians were much for utilitarian clothing.) Explaining to each other how they'd ended up in their current fix temporarily defeated them, but they had time to work it out in between figuring out how to escape.
Zantabraxus proved to be a very strong Spark. Her captors had stripped her -- and Nikola -- not for prurient reasons but for fear of what she'd do with any kind of equipment. Given the things she muttered about her lost jewellery Nikola had to think this had been prudent.
The bed, as it turned out, had been an unwise concession. It had also been a mistake not to search Nikola's tumbled braid more carefully for lurking hairpins... and to overlook the strength her scars warned of... and the chemical properties of the food the two of them managed to hide by judiciously stinting themselves.
And the fury, even among Zantabraxus's rivals, that outsiders had dared to threaten their queen to make them cooperate.
When Zantabraxus had retaken her throne, Nikola was treated as an honoured guest, which was much more comfortable, while they tried to work out how to get her home. This was more complicated than the relative brevity of Barry and Lucrezia's stay might have suggested.
Queen Luheia's Mirror used to connect to somewhere in Europa... probably. They were almost sure Skifander and Europa occupied the same dimension. That was a start. She ought to be able to navigate home, but it would be a long trip. Nikola hated to keep everybody waiting -- Barry would worry, the Jägers were probably all upset, and goodness only knew what Lucrezia had told them all -- but faced with the alarming prospect of going into labour while travelling alone, she was seriously considering whether she should wait and give birth in Skifander.
"You're welcome to stay here as long as you like, of course," said Zantabraxus, whose thoughts seemed to have been cast along the same lines by their mess of calculations. "I know it would be better to have your husband to look after it, but you must be nearly ready to lay your egg by now."
Nikola put her pen down, rubbed one ear, and regarded the Queen of Skifander uncertainly. "Egg? Like... a bird?"
"Well, more like a lizard," Zantabraxus said, frowning.
"I'm expecting a... a live birth," Nikola said. "No shell. And not for a few months yet."
Zantabraxus stared at her. "Oh, dear. Some of our livestock... um... I don't mean to insult you, but that doesn't always go easily and I think the only people who really have much experience with it are veterinarians...."
"I'm not insulted," Nikola assured her faintly. "But, you know, maybe we could have another look at the Mirror."
Determination was a powerful thing. A few weeks later Nikola plunged into Queen Luheia's mirror and out into an unfamiliar part of the Red Cathedral in Mechanicsburg -- as verified by the Abbess charging in a few seconds later. Unfortunately the Abbess seemed more inclined to hang on to her arm and ask incoherent questions than tell her how to get upstairs. When Nikola found her way out despite this interference, the Abbess let her go precipitously as Gkika came pounding up to engulf her in a hug.
"Hy is zo glad to see hyu." A clawed hand settled over Nikola's belly and Gkika asked with some urgency. "The baby iz hokay?"
The baby kicked against Gkika's palm. "Fine," Nikola said. "Sorry, I got--" She looked up, over Gkika's shoulder, toward the Castle, and -- no. No. The silhouette was wrong, it looked slumped, that -- "Gkika. What happened?"
Gkika's ears folded down. "Der Kestle voz blown up. Ve thott by the people who took hyu und Lucrezia."
"Ah--" Nikola realised she was staring as if transfixed and dragged her gaze back to Gkika's face. "Lucrezia sent me to Skifander. Somehow."
"Vot? Then vere did she go?"
"I have no idea!" Nikola worked a hand into her hair. "She didn't look like she was planning to go anywhere!" She hadn't looked like she was planning to blow the Castle up, either. Nikola was astonished by the idea that anybody had managed to do that much damage to it. But Lucrezia must have been up to something, if she didn't want to be caught -- had this been it, or had she been interrupted again? It must have been before Bill and Barry even got back.... "How bad was it? Was Adam--" Gkika's expression said everything. "Oh, no."
"It voz over before ve arrived," said Gkika. Other Jägers were approaching, now, stopping to stare at Nikola with something almost like hunger. "Master William's child voz dead, ve thott Master Barry's lost along with hyu. Und they left to look for hyu. Ve had to stay behind, ve haff not heard from them since."
"What." Nikola shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "No, that's just like them. Idiots." Naturally they'd charge off and never think to write home. Too busy, too distracted, too worried. No wonder Gkika had come thundering to check on her baby. It was one thing for Bill and Barry to go off adventuring when Mechanicsburg was secure. To have them searching for someone who'd broken Castle Heterodyne, killed the heir, and apparently spirited off both their wives.... "But I'd expect you to have heard something from someone. They're not usually inconspicuous."
"Things are vorse den hyu think," said Gkika, shifting an arm around Nikola's back as if she might need support. "Hyu are seeing the damage to Mechanicsburg, und ve are one of the most intact. Things haff been bad, normal communication iz not happening. Ve hear about dem all the time, but it iz rumour, and effen dey cannot be effryvhere ve haff been told." She sighed. "Although they probably are as much in de thick of tings as ve hear."
"I don't doubt that," Nikola said. And it was just like Mechanicsburg to take this long to tell her things were worse everywhere else. She supposed that was a little unfair; she'd barely been back fifteen minutes. "I'm going to need a detailed update." Based on rumours. Oh dear. "Well, as much detail as you've got, anyway. Take me somewhere with a table." Gkika's supportive hug was somehow making her more worried. Obviously Bill and Barry were in trouble, but it was sort of their natural state. How bad were things? ...And if there had been personal spite involved.... "Ah, what about Wulfenbach?"
"Ah." Gkika's arm tightened. "Ve did go there, it voz not far so ven ve heard ve thought the Masters vould not mind. It iz... not good. Much of it voz smashed und other Sparks got there before uz. Ve did not find hyu parents. Hy am sorry."
Nikola's hands curled into fists and she turned her face against Gkika's shoulder for a moment, fighting the urge to cry or snarl. Not that the Jägers would blame her for either one. Who could? She drew in one shaky breath and then lifted her head and said, as steadily as she could, "I need to know everything. And once I do, we are going to make sure anybody left in Wulfenbach is as safe as we can make them, and then we are going to go find Bill and Barry."
There was a brief silence and then a cheer that managed to also be a snarl and a roar from the gathering Jägers.
Khrizhan came through, pushing smaller Jägers aside as the excitement spread, and stopped in front of Nikola. "Iz goot to haff hyu home," he said, patting her shoulder with force that might have knocked a weaker person down. "Und in fighting spirit. But hyu cannot overrule the Heterodyne."
Nikola tilted her chin up, feeling her pulse beat in her temples, her hands itch to build, to fight, to do anything. "Of course not. What exactly did he tell you, again?"
"To stay and guard Mechanicsburg und vait for them to return," said Gkika.
Nikola nodded in understanding. "Of course Mechanicsburg must be defended," she said. "Especially with the Castle damaged. I certainly didn't mean to suggest everyone needs to come. I will go and do those things." She rested a hand on her belly, conscious of drawing every eye in the crowd, and got another firm kick from Barry's child in response. "Generals, I'll trust you to determine what kind of escort is appropriate."
That got another fierce cheer and a cry of "ken ve volunteer" from someone Nikola thought might have been Maxim.
Gkika and Khrizhan's eyes met. "General Gkika, hyu should take charge of escort for the Lady Heterodyne," Khrizhan said.
Gkika grinned, ears perked up and eyes shining red. "It vill be my pleasure."
Nikola kept feverishly busy. It helped keep her from being stunned. First, while Gkika handled the travel preparations, she started modifying some of Mechanicsburg's weaponry to be used without the Castle's direct help. This gave the Castle the opportunity to complain bitterly about her leaving. It couldn't actually stop her anymore, which was fortunate but still deeply chilling.
Second was the rescue of Wulfenbach. Even with Gkika's warning, she felt her heart seize when she saw it. And she vomited for the first time in months -- and maybe the first time in her life for purely psychological reasons -- after they surprised revenants stripping the flesh from livestock and farmers alike. Maybe someday she could rebuild. For now she scoured her parents' lands -- her lands -- and simply packed everyone she could find behind Mechanicsburg's walls.
She rode back out in a grimmer mood by far. It still wasn't clear what had happened in Mechanicsburg, but there had been fighting, and most of the dead including poor Adam had fallen to secondary damage to the Castle. But this? If this was Lucrezia's doing, Nikola was going to kill her.
Bill and Barry weren't usually hard to find -- if they weren't in the heart of the chaos, they'd probably turn up there before long. This principle was a lot less useful when she had most of a continent to search and most of that was a disaster area. Nikola made a list of the most promising recent rumours and then started by leading her Jäger escort to the nearest friendly towns that were not Spark-run and thus probably not directly targeted. They generally were less than thrilled at the arrival of a small horde of Jägers -- it turned out she and her baby warranted a very satisfactory escort -- but once they got a good look at her, they tended to concede that if she must go charging around the countryside at all she should certainly have a small army along. Especially if it camped outside. She made up for the alarm by improving their defences for them and left behind collections of messenger clanks, requesting that any useful information be sent directly back to Mechanicsburg.
She wouldn't have been at all surprised if Bill and Barry had heard about her and come to ask where she'd been and what she was doing dragging Jägers all over the place. Instead she brought her horde sweeping down on a swarm of warrior wasps that hadn't quite overrun a tiny hillside hamlet, and when the air cleared -- enough to see, if not to smell anything but smoke and death -- one of the defenders let a death ray clatter to the ground, stared at her, and croaked, "Nikola?"
Someone taller abruptly stood up from a crouch behind him, looking just as stunned, and she'd found them, she'd found them. By the time Nikola scrambled down out of her clank's cockpit they'd both run up to her; Bill checked himself barely long enough to let Barry hug her first and then wrapped his arms around them both.
Nikola hugged them both back fiercely. "What were you thinking?" she demanded at the same time, just managing not to yell in their ears. "Vanishing like that, no one had any idea where you were."
"We were looking for you!" Barry said. Which was not the point. Bill inhaled slightly. "--And Lucrezia," Barry added. "Where were you? What happened?"
"I was in Skifander." This was probably not the right time to tell them, but there was never going to be a right time to tell them and at least Bill was already being hugged. "Thanks to Lucrezia sending me there when I caught her doing something in the Castle basement."
Bill stiffened. Barry looked up at both of them. "...Oh, hell. Do you think she--"
"Not her style," Bill said grimly, "except for the bugs."
Barry stared at him and demanded, "Have you been suspecting that all this time?"
Bill looked away. "I don't know. Somebody destroyed her work; I don't know why she'd have done that. Could've imagined it. The Other could've made her work for him. We have to find her regardless." He leaned his forehead against Nikola's temple for a moment. "I'm sorry. Glad you're back, though."
"You idiot," said Nikola. "If you thought it was Lucrezia, that she was capable of this, from the start then you definitely needed back up. Not to mention that you should have told Mechanicsburg! What if she'd turned up there while you were gone?"
"In Mechanicsburg I thought you'd both been kidnapped," Bill said, looking tired and miserable. "After taking apart some of the wasps... I don't know."
"I don't think either of us was exactly rational when we left," Barry said against her shoulder. Nikola believed that but didn't have time to say so. "I didn't even think of-- we can send a message back."
"Pretty easily," Bill said, letting them go and looking around. The Jägers had drawn close, surrounding them, and while at least half were remembering to watch outward at any given time, all of them kept sneaking glances. "You brought the Jägers?"
"Some of them," said Nikola. "Nobody seriously thought you meant them to keep me prisoner or let me run around a war zone by myself. Even if you were doing it."
Bill snorted. "...I'm not sure you should be running around a war zone at all, but no, I wouldn't have expected them to stop you." He was looking straight at Gkika and Nikola thought she might've relaxed a bit.
"I wasn't going to stay in Mechanicsburg and wait for you to remember to send a message," said Nikola. "Besides, staying safe until the baby's born isn't going to do any good if it just winds up born into this mess and nobody's fixed anything."
"We're trying," said Bill.
"So am I," said Nikola. "And now we can join forces."
Among the crowd of Jägers Dimo cleared his throat. "Hokay, ve get hyu vant to fix things, but if hyu fix Mechanicsburg the baby vill be fine voteffer happens to effryvere else."
It occurred to Nikola that the Jägers had mostly been enthusiastic about coming with her because she was trying to find their Heterodynes and now they were all together they'd be just as happy if they all went home. However happy Jägers usually were about going into battle with their Heterodynes, they'd just been through a very uncertain time and probably wanted them safe. They didn't get a vote, though, and neither Nikola nor Bill and Barry were likely to leave everyone else to their fate.
Bill turned a burning look on Dimo. "Oh, will he? Like Adam is?"
Dimo flinched. "Sorry," he muttered. Nikola wasn't sure whether he was apologising for saying that or for failing to protect Adam -- realistically there was nothing the Jägers could have done, but they blamed themselves for failing to protect a Heterodyne in their own town.
Bill paced, halfway between Nikola and Barry and the circle of Jägers. "What happened once can happen again. Even if it was Lucrezia, it wasn't just her." Nikola pursed her lips. Lucrezia slitting a throat was plausible; Lucrezia winning the kind of knife fight suggested by the evidence in her laboratories all by herself did seem unlikely. "This all has to end."
Gkika stepped forward and picked Bill up. "If hyu say so then ve is behind hyu. Start by not vasting energy ven hyu look about to keel over."
Bill, who had made any number of speeches without being interrupted in this fashion (...many other fashions, but not being hoisted in the air like a child) stared levelly and somewhat incredulously at his general. Nikola tried very hard not to laugh and ended up with a deeply embarrassing squeak in the back of her throat.
"I think hugging you was the longest he's been still in months when we weren't trying to ambush something," muttered Barry.
"All right," Bill said finally. "So put me down and make camp."
Gkika set him back on his feet looking smug and around them Jägers hurried to set up tents and light fires.
"Once we've got somewhere to sit we need to consolidate information," said Nikola, once she'd recovered a bit.
"Good idea," Bill said drily, rejoining them. "If we can avoid being put down for a nap first."
"You look like you could use one," said Nikola. "I wouldn't tempt anyone if I was you."
No one dropped by to put them to bed but Miron picked that moment to show up with a large plate of roast and seasoned wasp.
"Did hyu vant some?" he asked, proffering it to Barry. "Hyu look hungry."
Barry did look hungry. He also looked disturbed. "Have you been eating those? We know the little ones turn people into revenants."
"Ho yez, iz delicious," said Miron.
Nikola coughed. "They're immune, even to the little ones. I haven't eaten any wasp, but I'm sure they just think I'm being squeamish."
Barry looked pained. "You let -- never mind, it's not like we can keep them out of people's throats who don't want to eat bugs on purpose." He gave Miron a wan smile. "Smells great, but I think we'd better pass."
"Hokay." Miron left but by the time they'd got seats set up around a fire of their own he was back with soup that he insisted wasn't wasp.
They accepted the soup. Bill and Barry obviously were ravenous, given how fast it disappeared. Miron returned with more bowls and, to Nikola's amusement, a pressure cooker. "What is in it?" Barry asked, halfway through his second bowl.
"If you can't tell but you like it," said Bill, "do you necessarily want to know?"
Barry frowned at his brother. "Where is your scientific curiosity?"
“Dis und dat,” said Miron. "Dry rations, sqvirrel, zum nize caterpillars, nettles."
"I'm impressed." Barry fished out what Nikola now supposed must be a caterpillar. "I thought those were awfully meaty for noodles."
"Hyu don't find many noodles vhile marching," said Miron, with a flash of toothy grin at the compliment.
"Sometimes," Barry said around the caterpillar, a bit bleakly, "that depends on if the last revenants through were too far gone to identify them as food or not."
Nikola remembered the ones she'd seen in Wulfenbach and winced. The Jägers were disturbed by the revenants, but not for that reason.
"You'd better tell me what you've worked out about the revenants and I'll share what I've seen," she said, turning her mind to practical matters. "Now we've got food and shelter we may as well get started."
They talked about the wasps and the revenants, trying to stay technical and practical if only because of the overwhelming emotion behind the stories they were telling. Nikola still choked up a bit when she told them about Wulfenbach and wound up with Barry pulling her half onto his lap. The Jägers tactfully kept their distance, but Nikola didn't -- quite -- cry.
Bill and Barry's stories were close to some of Nikola's. Fighting, shoring up what they could, too many situations where they couldn't save everyone, where the fates of those they couldn't left them stumbling over words, eyes hollow. They'd had it worse. She'd had an army and, even if it was their own fault for leaving a perfectly good one behind, they'd been through hell. Bill started pacing halfway through the story of a town they'd saved (partly, mostly) and couldn't be convinced to stop again.
Finally they got onto the subject of where Lucrezia might be and Nikola said, "Wherever she is she might have got there by portal. Did you know there's one in the Cathedral basement?"
Bill's footsteps halted. Barry looked over his shoulder at him. "Um... news to me."
"Maybe I should have stayed longer," Bill said doubtfully. "Then again I don't think Dr Yglyn was feeling very chatty even after the dentist got done. Is that how you got back?"
Nikola, having heard the story of Dr Yglyn trying to test an understandably jumpy new Heterodyne with the "knife of wisdom", was less confused about where a dentist came in than she might have been. Apparently he was fine with ceremonial teeth these days. "Yes. It's connected to one with ceremonial importance in Skifander. One which we managed to get working eventually."
"The gates of the warrior women!" Barry said abruptly. "We've run across a couple of references in relation to the first Heterodyne sneaking up on people that mostly sounded like an exaggeration of knowing the mountain passes. But if there's a standing portal connection between Mechanicsburg and Skifander...."
Bill started circling again. "We'll have to go back. It seems like the wasps and whatever's hitting Sparks are just falling from the sky, but if there are portals involved they could be starting anywhere."
The Jägers in hearing distance cheered and Nikola found herself unexpectedly trying not to laugh. "Everyone will be relieved to see you, they've been hanging on every rumour," she said.
Barry, at least, had the grace to look a little sheepish. "We haven't really been thinking about sending updates."
"I noticed," said Nikola, drily.
"I can still hardly believe you're back."
Nikola wrapped an arm around him and rested her head against his. "Get used to it, you won't be getting rid of me any time soon."