Well Met at Mechanicsburg 26/? (AU)
Title: Well Met at Mechanicsburg
Authors: khilari and persephone_kore
Summary: AU. Never having concluded Klaus was working for the Other, Barry Heterodyne returns to Mechanicsburg just in time to interrupt the Wulfenbach takeover. As Barry and Klaus tackle Europa's problems and settle into their new responsibilities, Aaronev's plotting sends Tarvek to join Agatha and Gil in a new friendship that may disrupt everyone's plans.
Note: Well... continuing fic about Klaus somehow feels much stranger now, even though I'm pretty sure we started this story after he said he'd mind-controlled Gil. But here we go anyway.
Chapter 26: In Which Barry and Klaus Steal a Conspiracy
With Barry and the Jägers gone the ship seemed strangely empty. The children, when Klaus checked on them, were still sleeping the sleep of the thoroughly exhausted. What was he going to do with them? With Sturmvoraus really - currently almost grey and burrowed into Gil’s shoulder as if he could shut out the world that way - who was certainly going to be a political problem, but was also eight, barely, and Gil and Agatha’s best friend.
He was interrupted by the arrival of Boris, all four hands full of confiscated papers. “Thank you,” Klaus said. “From the palace?”
“Yes,” said Boris. “There’s more of it, but this seemed to be to do with Lucrezia and the Geisterdamen.”
“Have someone send in a desk,” said Klaus, not wanting to do paperwork on the control panel. He looked at the sleeping children. “And a blanket.”
Hours later he had found that, yes, the chair Barry had destroyed had been meant to download Lucrezia. The wasps had been the supply to use on Europa - there had also been a few experiments in producing new wasps, but none had produced anything yet, for which Klaus was thankful. The revenants really hadn’t been intended to be mindless and there might be any number left over from the Other’s attacks who weren’t, who had gone unnoticed. He was going to have to try to find and cure them. Hopefully without starting a panic, they were living normal lives, they didn’t need lynch mobs panicking about revenants. He rubbed a hand across the bridge of his nose. They’d won, he reminded himself. Lucrezia hadn’t returned, her Geisterdamen were dead, and the hive engines she’d meant to use to control Europa were being collected for a trip to the nearest volcano.
He moved on to the next lot of paperwork and found…well. It looked like Tarvek’s claim was true, but it took a while for Klaus to reach the part explaining why the genealogy was in with Lucrezia’s Spark work. Well, that was…considerably creepy, since Lucrezia had apparently decided to design her own future husband…but it didn’t look like the modifications would do any harm. It would probably disqualify the boy with the stricter of the Fifty Families, which could be useful. Klaus sighed and looked toward the sleeping children again. Tarvek had known he was descended from Valois. Had he known about this?
There was a soft tap at the ship's entrance, and Klaus glanced up to see Barry. There were dark circles under his eyes and he smelt strongly of disinfectant soap with a tinge of blood-scent still under it. He offered Klaus one of two large mugs of coffee, which Klaus didn't exactly need but wasn't going to refuse. "The Jägers are looked after. Your medics ran me out when I offered to help with anybody else. The kids haven't been awake?"
"Not yet," said Klaus, glancing towards them automatically. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them when they are." He tapped the paper. "Sturmvoraus's genealogy is here. He really is the Storm King -- or, more accurately, he's a descendant of Valois and could make an excellent claim. He was also born for the role, thanks to Lucrezia making sure of his suitability. From what this says I don't think he's the only one, either."
"I don't want to speculate what she planned to do with the extras," Barry said, leaning over the desk to read upside-down. Klaus flipped the papers around for him and Barry blinked, looking momentarily disoriented.
"No," Klaus agreed. "My problem for now is what to do with the original. I doubt he meant to challenge me for Europa like this -- a child and alone -- but 'I'm the Storm King' didn't come out of nowhere. If he were unaware of the ramifications, he wouldn't be so sure he'd signed his own death warrant."
"No. He meant to save his father." Barry sighed and glanced up. "Thank you for interrupting me."
"I don't blame you for wanting to," said Klaus. Aaronev. Who would have to be killed (which would not reassure Tarvek) or kept prisoner indefinitely, but at least Klaus was set up to do that with dangerous Sparks. Usually not ones who had once been friends and had recently tried to destroy his friend's niece. "I know why he did it now. But I'm sure he meant to challenge me one day, and he's not going to be a child forever."
Barry nodded and straightened from the desk to pace around the room, careful not to thump near the sleeping children. "They did this on purpose.” Some of the anger that had nearly been Aaronev’s end vibrated in his voice. “Supported Lucrezia, helped her -- even if she meant the revenants to be obedient people instead of turning them into mindless monsters, dropping rocks on all the most powerful Sparks she could find has to have been meant to cause chaos.” He scowled. “Maybe it was supposed to start later, and they didn't originally mean to maintain it for twenty years or so before introducing their Storm King saviour, but I think you interfered with their plans just by stopping the wars. I suppose after that they meant to let you settle things and then find a way to have him step in. Presumably as 'Agatha's' husband. My involvement probably looked like a chance to get things back on track for them." He bit back the bitterness, sighed, and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "And that wasn't Tarvek's fault. But it doesn't mean he'd give up the whole idea, and it doesn't mean he wouldn't try something in time."
"At the least he never knew what they intended for Agatha. And he fought for her rather than allowing it. He did know about the revenants, no question there, although you're right that he can hardly be blamed for their existence," said Klaus. What Barry said sounded all too likely as what Aaronev and Lucrezia had planned. "I'm not sure if it's more or less disturbing to think that Lucrezia had a purpose in what she did." The sheer amount of chaos had seemed insane; now, as the prelude to ruling, it seemed colder.
"Just a different kind." Barry looked over at them. "He probably knows about Gil now."
Klaus winced. "And if he does have ambitions of his own, Gil's in the way of them. Or will be."
"Certainly of a peaceful takeover. Not that he looks like he's thinking of Gil as an obstacle at the moment." Not with them clinging together, no. Barry stopped walking and was silent for a moment, then said slowly, "Klaus... how strongly are you set on Gil inheriting an Empire?"
Klaus raised his eyebrows. "What are you thinking?" Certainly he didn't like running an Empire much. It was tiresome, and mostly meant stopping people from killing each other who probably deserved the consequences of a war, if only their peasants did. But he'd never really considered leaving it to anyone other than Gil, who was his own blood and Zantabraxus's, and whom he could train for it. He barely trusted most of the Fifty Families and Great Houses with their own cities.
"I'm thinking that despite the appalling way they went about setting it up, the return of the Storm King makes a pretty good story and they probably have reason to think they can get the Fifty Families to go along with it. I'm thinking that apart from being habituated to mind control in a way that turns my stomach, Tarvek has principles and decent instincts. And we can hardly hand him back to Aaronev to raise at this point. Given his lack of enthusiasm for going home, I wonder how many of the conspirators' children would be just as glad for a strongly urged invitation to the school." Barry held out a hand, as if the idea were sitting on his palm. "So... co-opt the plan. Declare yourself regent for Valois's rightful heir, and train him as yours."
Sending Sturmvoraus to any of his actual relatives to raise probably came to the same thing as killing him, Klaus thought, looking at the genealogy. They were rivals for the same throne -- a throne none of them actually had, but that hadn't stopped certain of the Fifty Families killing over it for the last two hundred years. One way or another the boy was staying on Castle Wulfenbach, because what else could they do with him? As for the rest... "I don't need their notion of legitimacy," Klaus said. "And if I need a story I have you. Really, after...this, you'd put a Sturmvoraus on the throne?"
"Which side of blood inheritance are you arguing, exactly?" Barry asked. "After this, I'm still planning to hand over Mechanicsburg to Lucrezia's daughter. After the past several centuries you still decided to trust a couple of Heterodynes." A crooked smile that Klaus couldn't quite help returning. "We can do without the Fifty Families' games, yes, but it may be a more effective strategy to play them our way. In theory their notion of legitimacy is supposed to keep things more stable than having random people pop up and conquer things and then lose interest or blow themselves up or whatever. In practice, questionable, I realise." He stopped, looking at the children. "I'm talking about the Sturmvoraus who didn't plan the wasps, even if he was raised thinking they were normal. The one who risked his life and all that was in it to protect a friend and is clinging to your son like the last solid thing in the world. One major advantage to what I'm suggesting is that it doesn't set them against each other."
Klaus looked at the sleeping children, too. "I never meant to found a dynasty," he said. "When this started I wasn't thinking that far ahead. But I do trust Gil more for being my blood, as Agatha is yours and Bill’s, even if she's also Lucrezia's." But would Gil want an Empire, especially one he had to fight his friend for? Gil was a child. He wanted to be with his friends, he wanted to make things, he wanted to fly. Who knew what he would want in another decade? Tarvek wanted Europa already, Klaus suspected, but he had been raised to it. As Gil hadn't, as Klaus had chosen not to raise him. "I don't know that I'd wish the Empire on Gil. But neither can I put it in the hands of someone I don't trust." Could he trust Tarvek? If not now, then who he might become with time and training to learn better than his family had taught him?
"He cares," Barry said. "About his friends, family even if they don't all deserve it, his townspeople... and about doing the right thing. He believes in using power to protect people instead of bullying them. It's a start."
It was, and better than several among the Fifty Families. Klaus turned the plan over in his head, trying to consider it dispassionately. It would pre-empt the Fifty Families -- or at least the Valois branches of it who were in on this. The common folk, not in on plots and politics, would be overjoyed. A new Storm King, one found and endorsed by Barry Heterodyne (because that was how it would be reported). They'd be expecting peace and prosperity to arrive at any moment, and while the optimism would prove unfounded sometimes it was easier to start things in that direction when people were expecting them and willing to try.
"It might work," he said, uncertainly. Gil would no longer be inheriting an Empire, but he'd only had any idea he could for a few months, and...and he'd be safe. "I'd be able to acknowledge Gil. No one would want to kill him for Wulfenbach." A personal consideration like that should have no place in deciding the fate of Europa (but the decision to clean up Europa had been too much about the child he'd brought into it to begin with).
"Not likely, no." Barry probably didn't think the personal consideration was a problem. Mechanicsburg ran on a kind of feudal devotion, familial and acutely personal, even these past years when its Heterodynes hadn't been quite sure about that. Klaus didn't exactly think the argument about not setting the children against each other had been purely because of their eventual political power.
"I can't believe you're convincing me this could work," said Klaus.
"It's simultaneously a remarkable political opportunity and quite possibly the kindest we can be to everyone involved," said Barry. "I do think it could work."
Klaus shook his head. "And after he was spying for Aaronev. But I don't think I can separate them at this point -- not unless I want to get shot by Agatha -- and there's nowhere safe to send Tarvek anyway. Keeping him here, expecting it to fall apart when he grows up… At least your way has a chance of it turning out better."
"I wouldn't let her shoot you," Barry protested. "But... look, you can play to a crowd on the spot as well as anybody, but I think sometimes in trying to do what's right and necessary regardless of what people think, you underestimate the power of what they do think. Of expectations, and of a story coming true, of a little bit of real life working out the way people feel it's supposed to. It's not always a good thing -- it's part of what drives new Sparks to try taking over towns and mobs to go after them with torches. But it can be. And in this case I think a lot of people who don't want to go with us as it is will play along, for the time being, because they can see the advantage to that. As well as because they see this as a sort of concession, see Tarvek as one of theirs."
"I don't want to make concessions," said Klaus, and then snorted at himself because that wasn't an argument against. That was pride, not to want to even be seen as playing their games, and contained more than a hint of the desire to Show Them All as well.
"I admit to sharing a certain sense that we shouldn't have to," Barry said, "but we are talking about one -- apparent -- concession designed to put someone we think well of in charge, one that may just get more cooperation out of the Fifty than love, money, or bullets could buy for the next several years."
“Do we think well of him?" asked Klaus. "Yes, he's got better ideals than many in those families and he's attached to Gil and Agatha. But are you proposing this because he's got the right bloodline and is young enough that we can work with that, or do you really think well enough of him to want him in charge?"
"Mixed,” Barry admitted. “I wouldn't be bringing it up if it weren't for the bloodline and situation, but then a lot of the risks and advantages wouldn't be there either. I wouldn't want him in charge now. He's eight years old and has been raised with Aaronev's... poisonous obsession." Barry smiled wryly. "And yet he came up with the ideals anyway. That says a lot."
What did Klaus think of Tarvek? All along he'd been thinking of him in relation to Gil. Friend and threat. Trying to think of him... Nervous around Klaus, which didn't help, inclined to go quiet. Barry almost certainly knew him better. "Perhaps I should have wondered why he didn't want to go back home," Klaus said.
"I don't think we could plausibly have reasoned from 'reluctant to be sent home in disgrace' to 'Aaronev was complicit in the Other's attempt to destroy Europe', really." Barry sighed. "But maybe we should have given it more thought than that."
"Well, no," said Klaus. "But I never really thought of him much at all. Most of what I know is that he's scared of me and Aaronev was using him as a spy."
"Probably not unrelated points."
"Hah. No." Klaus stood up and started sorting the paperwork into piles, for something to do. "Maybe he'll relax now there's nothing left to hide. If he can believe I'm not about to kill him."
"That could take some doing," Barry said ruefully. "Which I realise I didn't help with."
Klaus clapped a hand on Barry's shoulder. "You didn't threaten him." Aaronev had deserved it. If Tarvek hadn't been watching, Klaus would probably have let Barry finish it. "You were protecting all three of them when I got there."
"When I came in, Agatha was in the damned chair and the Geisterdamen were holding him and Gil both back."
One of them had scratched Tarvek, at some point, the tear in his nightclothes was still visible. Even if Klaus's first thought was fury that they'd been holding Gil, that they'd probably hurt him… Aaronev had been right there. Klaus and Barry had charged in to protect their children. For someone with the blood of kings Tarvek was curiously abandoned by the world. All three of them were enough to make anyone feel protective right now. "It could work," he said, returning abruptly to Barry's plan. "Valois wasn't perfect, either. And you know well enough I'm not. Sometimes it just takes ideals and the will to see it through. He fought for Agatha, he put himself on the line for his father." Who hadn't deserved it. "He's not short of courage."
"No." Barry leaned back against the desk, looking over at them. "Probably best to decide before he wakes up."
"Yes." Suspense would be cruel at this point. "There are several good reasons to agree with you, and," he paused to let out a sigh, "I want it to work, which feels like a reason to be suspicious of it. It would let me acknowledge Gil, it would let me leave the Empire in the hands of someone who might even be able to get some support in holding it. It might even make people happy about being forced to be peaceful for once."
Barry chuckled wearily. "I suppose there's something to be said for added caution over things you want to believe, but don't overdo it."
Klaus grinned at him. "Point. And if I'm going to play Fifty Families games there's something to be said for making the winning move at the start." He dropped back into his own chair. "I'll do it. The advantages are worth it." He picked up his nearly cold coffee and took a gulp. "But Sturmvoraus is never going to believe it if he wakes up and we tell him we're going to crown him king."
"He might," Barry said, eyes narrowing. "I think he may be awake."
Tarvek froze, trying to force his breathing to stay even, aware of two pairs of eyes on him, and then gave up and opened his eyes, blinking as he felt around for his glasses. He still couldn't quite believe what he had overheard. Agatha mumbled a sleepy protest as he moved and he stroked her hair until she settled before sliding her onto Gil and standing up. The two adults at the desk looked impossibly large.
"So when did you come in?" the Lord Heterodyne asked mildly. He was leaning easily back against the desk, looking a lot more like he had when he'd come to ask about getting caught in the vault. Like he'd be easy to talk to.
"Something about acknowledging Gil, I think," Tarvek said, and then realised he'd just given them another reason to kill him if they decided to, if they hadn't really been going to acknowledge him or decided against it. "I won't tell anyone...if you don't, I mean, it won't matter if..." He stopped and swallowed. "You're really going to crown me?"
"Yes," said the Baron evenly, watching him. "And you're right, you knowing about Gil isn't a threat to him anymore."
Tarvek swallowed again and looked down at Gil. "It explains why he was so weird about everything," he said, half under his breath. He rubbed his forehead. "I wasn't awake for -- well, is everybody...?" He trailed off, not sure whether the closing word should be "dead", "okay" or "alive".
"The townspeople got out," said the Baron. "There were very few casualties." Tarvek thought it had looked like an awful lot of them even just in the palace, but it was something, that the evacuation had worked, that they weren't all killed by the gas. "They're camping outside the town until we can be sure the gas has dissipated. Your sister is asleep in the school. Aaronev is in custody."
Tarvek leaned back against the wall, gingerly, and resisted the temptation to just slide back down it and sit for a little while. He should stay on his feet. "That's... good. And I..." He was trying to decide whether to ask if he could see any of them, although he doubted Anevka wanted to be woken up and he wasn't sure he wanted to see his father, when he looked down and realised what was in Agatha's hand. "Did Agatha build a death ray after we got here?!"
"You just noticed, huh?" said the Lord Heterodyne. "I've disabled it. She probably won't be pleased."
"She...." Tarvek looked down, she was still sprawled across Gil and until recently him as well. Had she been protecting them? Or protecting him? But she hadn't thought the Baron would kill him, had she? "Who exactly was she thinking of using it on?"
"Whoever tried to move any of the three of you," said the Baron. "Otherwise we'd have put you all to bed hours ago."
"Oh." He smiled at Agatha, not sure whether to be touched or worried. Did she think he was in danger? Probably not if she was acting the same around Gil, certainly the Baron wouldn't hurt him.
"She's in breakthrough," said the Lord Heterodyne. "And was just attacked by people who used to look after her. I'm not surprised she's a little paranoid, although I hope it'll be better once she's fully awake." He smiled faintly. "Given her attitude toward you, please don't go anywhere. It would be a bad time for a tantrum."
"I won't," Tarvek said quickly. He wondered for a wild moment whether they'd decided not to kill him because they couldn't risk upsetting Agatha further right now...but he'd overheard them talking, it was a real plan, they weren't just pretending. Or if they were they'd set it up very carefully.
"Are you okay with joining her in the lab once she does wake up?"
"Oh, yes." They could work on the dragon, now that one of them was in breakthrough they might actually make it work. Gil would be thrilled. Suddenly his head was full of clockwork and wing joints, which was a lot nicer than the fear and confusion it had been full of a moment ago.
The Baron leaned forward in his seat, all at once intensely alert. "You were helping her build things last night, weren't you."
"Both of them were," said the Lord Heterodyne. "Klaus--"
"Tripling the blast shields," the Baron muttered.
"Yes," said Tarvek. "Oh. All of us?" They could definitely finish the dragon, then.
"It looks that way." The Baron looked like he couldn't decide how to feel about this. Eager and anxious. "...How are you feeling?"
"Fine. Better." It was easier to think about mechanical things than how unlikely it was that the Baron was really going to acknowledge him, or what would happen to his family, or remember Agatha strapped into that chair or the townspeople lying in the corridors with their throats slit. His mind shied away from that, into mechanical solutions. Giant shields for covering whole towns, and giant dragons with built in lockpicks and flamethrowers for rescuing people from prison and….
"You know, perhaps we'd better wake Agatha and Gil," said the Lord Heterodyne, coming over to kneel by the two of them. "Agatha, sweetheart?" He put a hand on her shoulder, and both Gil and Agatha woke with a gasp. Agatha lifted her death ray and Gil clutched at her, either protective or restraining, and looked around wildly until he saw Tarvek.
"Uncle Barry," said Agatha, slumping back and looking mostly relieved. "Are we okay now?"
"Yes. The fight's over, you and your friends are safe."
Agatha sighed and practically melted onto the floor, regardless of Gil's legs, then sat up again all at once. "I need a lab, please."
The Baron stood up and went over to the ship door. "That sounds like a good idea. You go ahead and I'll follow with blast shields."
As far as Gil could tell, everything was mostly okay now. Agatha hadn't shot his father and they were all going to a lab. Only they weren't going to the school, and he dropped back beside his father, who looked rather surprised. "Could we get our dragon?"
"Barry," his father called, and then threw the blast shields across for Barry Heterodyne to catch. "You carry on. I'm taking Gil to get their dragon."
"Ah. Yes, good idea." Barry stepped into Agatha and Tarvek's line of sight as they glanced back for him, and Gil followed his father off toward the school laboratory.
"How are you feeling?" his father asked, looking down at him as they walked.
"Pretty good," Gil said. "All kind of fizzy. Relieved. Ideas all over everywhere. Um...." He looked up and tried to think. Should he not be feeling good? He didn't know what had happened while he was out. "Barry Heterodyne got back okay. You're okay. It sounded like everybody was getting out. Did you find the hive engines and everything?"
"Barry did. And yes, everyone is okay," said his father, before adding, somehow sounding both excited and resigned, "You're also in breakthrough."
"Oh!" He really was going to be a Spark. Everybody else had seemed so sure about it, but he'd always wondered a little if he was going to disappoint them, even though he was pretty sure he could still work with Agatha regardless. "That's good, right?"
"...Yes. If not particularly safe. Including for the rest of us if we don't get Agatha distracted from death rays," said his father. He ruffled Gil's hair. "I'm sure you'll all be fine."
"I think the dragon will be good for that," Gil said. There was something he should tell his father, probably. "Um, I think Tarvek figured out... because I had the beacon. But we had to use it."
"Yes, he knows. And you did have to use the beacon. You did well sending a message with it too, I had no idea you'd learnt military code." Gil's hand was suddenly engulfed by his father's larger one and he looked up, surprised as much as pleased when they were in a corridor -- even if no one else was around -- and his father had put so much effort into hiding their connection.
"I know it was when we weren't supposed to be listening," he said, latching on firmly, "and I knew you'd come no matter what but it was too weird not to tell you what was going on."
"Information is valuable," said his father, distractedly. "Gil. There's something I need to tell you about our plans for the future -- mine and Barry's."
That definitely sounded interesting. "What is it? Do I do something in them?"
"Probably. That's up to you, but I can't imagine you won't. Do you remember Tarvek claiming to be the Storm King?"
"Yes." Vividly. Although Gil hadn't known what to say about it at the time. And... Gil remembered, too, almost as clearly, when Agatha asked if the Storm King was like Baron Wulfenbach and Tarvek had been indignant. He swallowed. "Agatha told him one time if the Storm King was around he obviously needed help and should work with you and her uncle," he said, "but we didn't know. Did you?" Was that why his father had been so worried about what Tarvek knew?
"No. He wouldn't have told us. Making that claim means making a claim for Europa. He really did expect us to kill him once we knew," his father said sombrely, then added, "In case you were wondering, we're not going to. What we're doing is something more like Agatha's plan."
"I didn't think you'd have known because he told you," Gil muttered. Tarvek liked telling people things, but he'd have told Gil and Agatha secrets sooner than the Baron. "...You're gonna work with him how?"
"The Storm King really does have a claim to Europa. At least in the eyes of a lot of its population. They'd be more willing to obey and work with an Empire run by a descendant of Valois, and the point of the Empire was always to stop people fighting. I'd continue to run it until Tarvek was old enough to do so himself." His father stopped, waiting for Gil's response.
Gil hesitated, looking up at him, and then said carefully, "Instead of me doing it... um... eventually." Not that he wanted to think about his father dying.
"Yes." His father's step faltered for a moment. "Did you want to rule Europa?"
Gil rubbed one ankle along the back of his other leg. "I was hoping it wouldn't be for a really long time?"
His father looked away and rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Thank you. This way I'm hoping I'll get to retire some time before dying."
"Um, that sounds nice?" He hadn't really thought about his father wanting to do something different. "I don't want you to die. I don't want Tarvek to die either. Um, I think he might be good at it, as long as it doesn't mean people not talking to him?"
"I don't think it would stop people talking to him?" said his father, sounding rather puzzled.
"I mean he isn't very good about not having people talk to him... um... at least he wasn't when I wasn't--" Gil stopped talking. "I think maybe my head is full of dragons right now and it's hard to be clear."
"Maybe we shouldn't be having this conversation while you're in breakthrough," said his father, smiling. "But you needed to hear it from me, I think. If you mean yourself and Agatha then one of the advantages of this is that none of the three of you will need to keep secrets from each other. I'm not trying to separate you." They reached the school, still quiet this early in the morning, and Otilia let them in. She'd changed clothes, and her wings were damp, the bloodstains fainter. His father opened the laboratory door and said, once they were inside, "And from my point of view, one of the main advantages is that I won't have to keep you secret at all."
Gil stopped and stared up at him. That swept the dragons right out of his thoughts. "Really?"
"Yes. With one of their own already in line to inherit Europa you won't be an obstacle anyone will feel the need to remove. I can acknowledge you as my son and heir to Wulfenbach."
...Acknowledge you as my son.... Gil launched himself upward, hauling on the hand he held for extra leverage, and his father caught him automatically and looked very startled at the hug before Gil buried his face against him. "That will be nice," Gil said, a little bit muffled by his father's collarbone.
His father hugged him back for a long moment. "Yes, it will be," he said softly, then lifted Gil away from him to put him down and pick up the dragon. "For now we'd better be getting back."
Gil raced around to pick up everything else he could think of that looked interesting or dragon-related and then came back to follow his father out the door. They were going to admit it and not have to keep it secret and see each other without sneaking around!
They arrived back at the lab to find Agatha and Tarvek working shoulder to shoulder, with blast shields deployed around them and Barry Heterodyne behind them reaching over to show them things. Gil raced over to see what they were working on and was somewhat alarmed to see it was another, slightly larger, death ray.
"Barry," said his father.
"I was showing them how to make sure it doesn't go off accidentally," Barry Heterodyne explained.
Gil's father put the dragon down on the lab bench in front of Agatha and Tarvek -- carefully not on top of anything they were building but also where they couldn't miss it -- and buried his face in his palm. "That's it. You're forbidden from helping with this."
"...why?"
"Because you had to ask that!" His father tugged Barry up by one arm.
"He's been very helpful," said Agatha, picking something up to add to her death ray.
Gil climbed up beside her. "Do we have to make death rays?" he asked. "We brought the dragon and I want to see if we can finish it, I'd rather fly than shoot at people, come on."
Tarvek looked up far enough to see the dragon and nearly pounced on it. "I still don't like flying," he said a little grumpily, taking pieces out. "You can fly it. But I think we can get it working now."
"You could fly it indoors," said Gil, even if that defeated the purpose a little bit. He grabbed the body and opened it up, he was sure there was a way to make the engine more efficient and reduce the weight.
"I hope you didn't think I'd let you fly it off the side of Castle Wulfenbach," his father said in disbelief.
Gil looked up at him in bewilderment. "Why not?"
"Well -- certainly not as a test."
Agatha peered into the clank's mouth. "I think it needs a flamethrower."
Gil tugged her away. "Priorities. It has to be able to fly first! Here, I brought the little one back for an example."
"That one used to have a flamethrower!" Agatha argued.
"We're on an airship! My father's airship! We don't need a flamethrower!" Wait, it might have been a little early to say that.
Agatha goggled at him. "Baron Wulfenbach's your father?"
"Yes," said Gil, shooting an apologetic look at his father in case he really hadn't been supposed to say it yet. "I don't think it has to be a secret anymore."
"All the secrets blew up," said Tarvek, with an unsettling sort of giggle.
"I was planning to make the announcement after the one about Tarvek," his father said, giving Tarvek a concerned look, "but that's fine."
"Are you okay?" Gil asked Tarvek. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you." He stopped, realising his father was listening, and carried on, "Well, not exactly, but I'm sorry I was worried enough about you finding out to stop talking to you and I won't do it again."
Tarvek looked at him in surprise. "That's a stupid way to keep a secret, acting like you have one," he said. "I didn't tell you everything either and Agatha never said she remembered anything about the Geisterdamen."
"They didn't exactly come up," said Agatha.
"You learnt their language first and never sounded like it at all!"
"Uncle Barry said not to speak it!"
"That's not what I meant," Tarvek said. "I guess it worked, I didn't figure it out until last night. I still can't believe he had a baby with the Queen of Mars."
"Skifander," said Gil. "It's not the whole planet."
"Now you're being pedantic."
"I am not, it's an important distinction, would you call Albia the Queen of Earth?!"
"Uh...." Tarvek frowned. "Okay, no."
"I didn't think so. Especially not if you're gonna be the Storm King."
Tarvek glanced nervously toward the two adults. "He says so."
"He wouldn't lie to you about it," Gil said indignantly.
Tarvek's eyes glittered. "No? How long did you know you were his?"
"That's different!" snapped Gil, feeling his brain go hot and bubbly. "He wasn't pretending he was going to help me or...or that I was important and then taking it away."
"No, he let you think you weren't! He let me think you weren't! I was afraid he was going to experiment on you!"
"You were what? Why would you even think that?" Gil demanded. "Even if I had been an orphan he'd never been mean to me!"
Tarvek clutched at his hair. "People do that! It's not safe to be a Spark without connections!"
"I had Agatha! She's a connection! I didn't need you to protect me from my father!"
"I didn't know he was your father!"
"You weren't meant to!"
"He wouldn't do that to anybody," Agatha said, trying to lean around Gil to reach the equipment on his end of the bench. "And don't hide the welder."
Gil handed her the welder and took a deep breath. "He never promised me anything he couldn't give, anyway. If he wasn't going to make you King he just wouldn't."
Tarvek opened his mouth and then went pale when the person they were talking about cleared his throat and said, "That's right."
Gil looked at him, but he didn't look angry, and then at Tarvek and...every variation of you don't have to be afraid of him seemed both unconvincing and really embarrassing to say in front of the person they were talking about. "No one's going to get hurt," he said firmly, and turned back to the dragon. "...Agatha, don't install the welder, I said we didn't need a flamethrower! Give it here."
Agatha frowned at him. "We might."
"What do you think we'll want to set on fire?" Gil demanded. He considered turning to Tarvek for backup, you could normally count on Tarvek to be against things like flamethrowers on airships, but he was being weird right now.
"I don't know! It's a good capability to have in reserve!" Agatha was starting to sound agitated again.
"I'm not sure we need a dragon that can weld things, though," Tarvek said thoughtfully. "Anyway, don't we need the welder to put it together?"
"Yes, thank you!" said Gil.
Agatha sighed. "I bet we could combine a flamethrower with a gas-based supplementary lifting system--"
"NO!" said both boys together. Out of the corner of his eye, Gil saw his father start forward and Agatha's uncle grab his arm to hold him back. To his relief, Tarvek then started explaining why they did not want to try to engineer that particular combination, and Gil got them back on the subject of wing structure, and after that they started really making progress.
Authors: khilari and persephone_kore
Summary: AU. Never having concluded Klaus was working for the Other, Barry Heterodyne returns to Mechanicsburg just in time to interrupt the Wulfenbach takeover. As Barry and Klaus tackle Europa's problems and settle into their new responsibilities, Aaronev's plotting sends Tarvek to join Agatha and Gil in a new friendship that may disrupt everyone's plans.
Note: Well... continuing fic about Klaus somehow feels much stranger now, even though I'm pretty sure we started this story after he said he'd mind-controlled Gil. But here we go anyway.
Chapter 26: In Which Barry and Klaus Steal a Conspiracy
With Barry and the Jägers gone the ship seemed strangely empty. The children, when Klaus checked on them, were still sleeping the sleep of the thoroughly exhausted. What was he going to do with them? With Sturmvoraus really - currently almost grey and burrowed into Gil’s shoulder as if he could shut out the world that way - who was certainly going to be a political problem, but was also eight, barely, and Gil and Agatha’s best friend.
He was interrupted by the arrival of Boris, all four hands full of confiscated papers. “Thank you,” Klaus said. “From the palace?”
“Yes,” said Boris. “There’s more of it, but this seemed to be to do with Lucrezia and the Geisterdamen.”
“Have someone send in a desk,” said Klaus, not wanting to do paperwork on the control panel. He looked at the sleeping children. “And a blanket.”
Hours later he had found that, yes, the chair Barry had destroyed had been meant to download Lucrezia. The wasps had been the supply to use on Europa - there had also been a few experiments in producing new wasps, but none had produced anything yet, for which Klaus was thankful. The revenants really hadn’t been intended to be mindless and there might be any number left over from the Other’s attacks who weren’t, who had gone unnoticed. He was going to have to try to find and cure them. Hopefully without starting a panic, they were living normal lives, they didn’t need lynch mobs panicking about revenants. He rubbed a hand across the bridge of his nose. They’d won, he reminded himself. Lucrezia hadn’t returned, her Geisterdamen were dead, and the hive engines she’d meant to use to control Europa were being collected for a trip to the nearest volcano.
He moved on to the next lot of paperwork and found…well. It looked like Tarvek’s claim was true, but it took a while for Klaus to reach the part explaining why the genealogy was in with Lucrezia’s Spark work. Well, that was…considerably creepy, since Lucrezia had apparently decided to design her own future husband…but it didn’t look like the modifications would do any harm. It would probably disqualify the boy with the stricter of the Fifty Families, which could be useful. Klaus sighed and looked toward the sleeping children again. Tarvek had known he was descended from Valois. Had he known about this?
There was a soft tap at the ship's entrance, and Klaus glanced up to see Barry. There were dark circles under his eyes and he smelt strongly of disinfectant soap with a tinge of blood-scent still under it. He offered Klaus one of two large mugs of coffee, which Klaus didn't exactly need but wasn't going to refuse. "The Jägers are looked after. Your medics ran me out when I offered to help with anybody else. The kids haven't been awake?"
"Not yet," said Klaus, glancing towards them automatically. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them when they are." He tapped the paper. "Sturmvoraus's genealogy is here. He really is the Storm King -- or, more accurately, he's a descendant of Valois and could make an excellent claim. He was also born for the role, thanks to Lucrezia making sure of his suitability. From what this says I don't think he's the only one, either."
"I don't want to speculate what she planned to do with the extras," Barry said, leaning over the desk to read upside-down. Klaus flipped the papers around for him and Barry blinked, looking momentarily disoriented.
"No," Klaus agreed. "My problem for now is what to do with the original. I doubt he meant to challenge me for Europa like this -- a child and alone -- but 'I'm the Storm King' didn't come out of nowhere. If he were unaware of the ramifications, he wouldn't be so sure he'd signed his own death warrant."
"No. He meant to save his father." Barry sighed and glanced up. "Thank you for interrupting me."
"I don't blame you for wanting to," said Klaus. Aaronev. Who would have to be killed (which would not reassure Tarvek) or kept prisoner indefinitely, but at least Klaus was set up to do that with dangerous Sparks. Usually not ones who had once been friends and had recently tried to destroy his friend's niece. "I know why he did it now. But I'm sure he meant to challenge me one day, and he's not going to be a child forever."
Barry nodded and straightened from the desk to pace around the room, careful not to thump near the sleeping children. "They did this on purpose.” Some of the anger that had nearly been Aaronev’s end vibrated in his voice. “Supported Lucrezia, helped her -- even if she meant the revenants to be obedient people instead of turning them into mindless monsters, dropping rocks on all the most powerful Sparks she could find has to have been meant to cause chaos.” He scowled. “Maybe it was supposed to start later, and they didn't originally mean to maintain it for twenty years or so before introducing their Storm King saviour, but I think you interfered with their plans just by stopping the wars. I suppose after that they meant to let you settle things and then find a way to have him step in. Presumably as 'Agatha's' husband. My involvement probably looked like a chance to get things back on track for them." He bit back the bitterness, sighed, and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "And that wasn't Tarvek's fault. But it doesn't mean he'd give up the whole idea, and it doesn't mean he wouldn't try something in time."
"At the least he never knew what they intended for Agatha. And he fought for her rather than allowing it. He did know about the revenants, no question there, although you're right that he can hardly be blamed for their existence," said Klaus. What Barry said sounded all too likely as what Aaronev and Lucrezia had planned. "I'm not sure if it's more or less disturbing to think that Lucrezia had a purpose in what she did." The sheer amount of chaos had seemed insane; now, as the prelude to ruling, it seemed colder.
"Just a different kind." Barry looked over at them. "He probably knows about Gil now."
Klaus winced. "And if he does have ambitions of his own, Gil's in the way of them. Or will be."
"Certainly of a peaceful takeover. Not that he looks like he's thinking of Gil as an obstacle at the moment." Not with them clinging together, no. Barry stopped walking and was silent for a moment, then said slowly, "Klaus... how strongly are you set on Gil inheriting an Empire?"
Klaus raised his eyebrows. "What are you thinking?" Certainly he didn't like running an Empire much. It was tiresome, and mostly meant stopping people from killing each other who probably deserved the consequences of a war, if only their peasants did. But he'd never really considered leaving it to anyone other than Gil, who was his own blood and Zantabraxus's, and whom he could train for it. He barely trusted most of the Fifty Families and Great Houses with their own cities.
"I'm thinking that despite the appalling way they went about setting it up, the return of the Storm King makes a pretty good story and they probably have reason to think they can get the Fifty Families to go along with it. I'm thinking that apart from being habituated to mind control in a way that turns my stomach, Tarvek has principles and decent instincts. And we can hardly hand him back to Aaronev to raise at this point. Given his lack of enthusiasm for going home, I wonder how many of the conspirators' children would be just as glad for a strongly urged invitation to the school." Barry held out a hand, as if the idea were sitting on his palm. "So... co-opt the plan. Declare yourself regent for Valois's rightful heir, and train him as yours."
Sending Sturmvoraus to any of his actual relatives to raise probably came to the same thing as killing him, Klaus thought, looking at the genealogy. They were rivals for the same throne -- a throne none of them actually had, but that hadn't stopped certain of the Fifty Families killing over it for the last two hundred years. One way or another the boy was staying on Castle Wulfenbach, because what else could they do with him? As for the rest... "I don't need their notion of legitimacy," Klaus said. "And if I need a story I have you. Really, after...this, you'd put a Sturmvoraus on the throne?"
"Which side of blood inheritance are you arguing, exactly?" Barry asked. "After this, I'm still planning to hand over Mechanicsburg to Lucrezia's daughter. After the past several centuries you still decided to trust a couple of Heterodynes." A crooked smile that Klaus couldn't quite help returning. "We can do without the Fifty Families' games, yes, but it may be a more effective strategy to play them our way. In theory their notion of legitimacy is supposed to keep things more stable than having random people pop up and conquer things and then lose interest or blow themselves up or whatever. In practice, questionable, I realise." He stopped, looking at the children. "I'm talking about the Sturmvoraus who didn't plan the wasps, even if he was raised thinking they were normal. The one who risked his life and all that was in it to protect a friend and is clinging to your son like the last solid thing in the world. One major advantage to what I'm suggesting is that it doesn't set them against each other."
Klaus looked at the sleeping children, too. "I never meant to found a dynasty," he said. "When this started I wasn't thinking that far ahead. But I do trust Gil more for being my blood, as Agatha is yours and Bill’s, even if she's also Lucrezia's." But would Gil want an Empire, especially one he had to fight his friend for? Gil was a child. He wanted to be with his friends, he wanted to make things, he wanted to fly. Who knew what he would want in another decade? Tarvek wanted Europa already, Klaus suspected, but he had been raised to it. As Gil hadn't, as Klaus had chosen not to raise him. "I don't know that I'd wish the Empire on Gil. But neither can I put it in the hands of someone I don't trust." Could he trust Tarvek? If not now, then who he might become with time and training to learn better than his family had taught him?
"He cares," Barry said. "About his friends, family even if they don't all deserve it, his townspeople... and about doing the right thing. He believes in using power to protect people instead of bullying them. It's a start."
It was, and better than several among the Fifty Families. Klaus turned the plan over in his head, trying to consider it dispassionately. It would pre-empt the Fifty Families -- or at least the Valois branches of it who were in on this. The common folk, not in on plots and politics, would be overjoyed. A new Storm King, one found and endorsed by Barry Heterodyne (because that was how it would be reported). They'd be expecting peace and prosperity to arrive at any moment, and while the optimism would prove unfounded sometimes it was easier to start things in that direction when people were expecting them and willing to try.
"It might work," he said, uncertainly. Gil would no longer be inheriting an Empire, but he'd only had any idea he could for a few months, and...and he'd be safe. "I'd be able to acknowledge Gil. No one would want to kill him for Wulfenbach." A personal consideration like that should have no place in deciding the fate of Europa (but the decision to clean up Europa had been too much about the child he'd brought into it to begin with).
"Not likely, no." Barry probably didn't think the personal consideration was a problem. Mechanicsburg ran on a kind of feudal devotion, familial and acutely personal, even these past years when its Heterodynes hadn't been quite sure about that. Klaus didn't exactly think the argument about not setting the children against each other had been purely because of their eventual political power.
"I can't believe you're convincing me this could work," said Klaus.
"It's simultaneously a remarkable political opportunity and quite possibly the kindest we can be to everyone involved," said Barry. "I do think it could work."
Klaus shook his head. "And after he was spying for Aaronev. But I don't think I can separate them at this point -- not unless I want to get shot by Agatha -- and there's nowhere safe to send Tarvek anyway. Keeping him here, expecting it to fall apart when he grows up… At least your way has a chance of it turning out better."
"I wouldn't let her shoot you," Barry protested. "But... look, you can play to a crowd on the spot as well as anybody, but I think sometimes in trying to do what's right and necessary regardless of what people think, you underestimate the power of what they do think. Of expectations, and of a story coming true, of a little bit of real life working out the way people feel it's supposed to. It's not always a good thing -- it's part of what drives new Sparks to try taking over towns and mobs to go after them with torches. But it can be. And in this case I think a lot of people who don't want to go with us as it is will play along, for the time being, because they can see the advantage to that. As well as because they see this as a sort of concession, see Tarvek as one of theirs."
"I don't want to make concessions," said Klaus, and then snorted at himself because that wasn't an argument against. That was pride, not to want to even be seen as playing their games, and contained more than a hint of the desire to Show Them All as well.
"I admit to sharing a certain sense that we shouldn't have to," Barry said, "but we are talking about one -- apparent -- concession designed to put someone we think well of in charge, one that may just get more cooperation out of the Fifty than love, money, or bullets could buy for the next several years."
“Do we think well of him?" asked Klaus. "Yes, he's got better ideals than many in those families and he's attached to Gil and Agatha. But are you proposing this because he's got the right bloodline and is young enough that we can work with that, or do you really think well enough of him to want him in charge?"
"Mixed,” Barry admitted. “I wouldn't be bringing it up if it weren't for the bloodline and situation, but then a lot of the risks and advantages wouldn't be there either. I wouldn't want him in charge now. He's eight years old and has been raised with Aaronev's... poisonous obsession." Barry smiled wryly. "And yet he came up with the ideals anyway. That says a lot."
What did Klaus think of Tarvek? All along he'd been thinking of him in relation to Gil. Friend and threat. Trying to think of him... Nervous around Klaus, which didn't help, inclined to go quiet. Barry almost certainly knew him better. "Perhaps I should have wondered why he didn't want to go back home," Klaus said.
"I don't think we could plausibly have reasoned from 'reluctant to be sent home in disgrace' to 'Aaronev was complicit in the Other's attempt to destroy Europe', really." Barry sighed. "But maybe we should have given it more thought than that."
"Well, no," said Klaus. "But I never really thought of him much at all. Most of what I know is that he's scared of me and Aaronev was using him as a spy."
"Probably not unrelated points."
"Hah. No." Klaus stood up and started sorting the paperwork into piles, for something to do. "Maybe he'll relax now there's nothing left to hide. If he can believe I'm not about to kill him."
"That could take some doing," Barry said ruefully. "Which I realise I didn't help with."
Klaus clapped a hand on Barry's shoulder. "You didn't threaten him." Aaronev had deserved it. If Tarvek hadn't been watching, Klaus would probably have let Barry finish it. "You were protecting all three of them when I got there."
"When I came in, Agatha was in the damned chair and the Geisterdamen were holding him and Gil both back."
One of them had scratched Tarvek, at some point, the tear in his nightclothes was still visible. Even if Klaus's first thought was fury that they'd been holding Gil, that they'd probably hurt him… Aaronev had been right there. Klaus and Barry had charged in to protect their children. For someone with the blood of kings Tarvek was curiously abandoned by the world. All three of them were enough to make anyone feel protective right now. "It could work," he said, returning abruptly to Barry's plan. "Valois wasn't perfect, either. And you know well enough I'm not. Sometimes it just takes ideals and the will to see it through. He fought for Agatha, he put himself on the line for his father." Who hadn't deserved it. "He's not short of courage."
"No." Barry leaned back against the desk, looking over at them. "Probably best to decide before he wakes up."
"Yes." Suspense would be cruel at this point. "There are several good reasons to agree with you, and," he paused to let out a sigh, "I want it to work, which feels like a reason to be suspicious of it. It would let me acknowledge Gil, it would let me leave the Empire in the hands of someone who might even be able to get some support in holding it. It might even make people happy about being forced to be peaceful for once."
Barry chuckled wearily. "I suppose there's something to be said for added caution over things you want to believe, but don't overdo it."
Klaus grinned at him. "Point. And if I'm going to play Fifty Families games there's something to be said for making the winning move at the start." He dropped back into his own chair. "I'll do it. The advantages are worth it." He picked up his nearly cold coffee and took a gulp. "But Sturmvoraus is never going to believe it if he wakes up and we tell him we're going to crown him king."
"He might," Barry said, eyes narrowing. "I think he may be awake."
Tarvek froze, trying to force his breathing to stay even, aware of two pairs of eyes on him, and then gave up and opened his eyes, blinking as he felt around for his glasses. He still couldn't quite believe what he had overheard. Agatha mumbled a sleepy protest as he moved and he stroked her hair until she settled before sliding her onto Gil and standing up. The two adults at the desk looked impossibly large.
"So when did you come in?" the Lord Heterodyne asked mildly. He was leaning easily back against the desk, looking a lot more like he had when he'd come to ask about getting caught in the vault. Like he'd be easy to talk to.
"Something about acknowledging Gil, I think," Tarvek said, and then realised he'd just given them another reason to kill him if they decided to, if they hadn't really been going to acknowledge him or decided against it. "I won't tell anyone...if you don't, I mean, it won't matter if..." He stopped and swallowed. "You're really going to crown me?"
"Yes," said the Baron evenly, watching him. "And you're right, you knowing about Gil isn't a threat to him anymore."
Tarvek swallowed again and looked down at Gil. "It explains why he was so weird about everything," he said, half under his breath. He rubbed his forehead. "I wasn't awake for -- well, is everybody...?" He trailed off, not sure whether the closing word should be "dead", "okay" or "alive".
"The townspeople got out," said the Baron. "There were very few casualties." Tarvek thought it had looked like an awful lot of them even just in the palace, but it was something, that the evacuation had worked, that they weren't all killed by the gas. "They're camping outside the town until we can be sure the gas has dissipated. Your sister is asleep in the school. Aaronev is in custody."
Tarvek leaned back against the wall, gingerly, and resisted the temptation to just slide back down it and sit for a little while. He should stay on his feet. "That's... good. And I..." He was trying to decide whether to ask if he could see any of them, although he doubted Anevka wanted to be woken up and he wasn't sure he wanted to see his father, when he looked down and realised what was in Agatha's hand. "Did Agatha build a death ray after we got here?!"
"You just noticed, huh?" said the Lord Heterodyne. "I've disabled it. She probably won't be pleased."
"She...." Tarvek looked down, she was still sprawled across Gil and until recently him as well. Had she been protecting them? Or protecting him? But she hadn't thought the Baron would kill him, had she? "Who exactly was she thinking of using it on?"
"Whoever tried to move any of the three of you," said the Baron. "Otherwise we'd have put you all to bed hours ago."
"Oh." He smiled at Agatha, not sure whether to be touched or worried. Did she think he was in danger? Probably not if she was acting the same around Gil, certainly the Baron wouldn't hurt him.
"She's in breakthrough," said the Lord Heterodyne. "And was just attacked by people who used to look after her. I'm not surprised she's a little paranoid, although I hope it'll be better once she's fully awake." He smiled faintly. "Given her attitude toward you, please don't go anywhere. It would be a bad time for a tantrum."
"I won't," Tarvek said quickly. He wondered for a wild moment whether they'd decided not to kill him because they couldn't risk upsetting Agatha further right now...but he'd overheard them talking, it was a real plan, they weren't just pretending. Or if they were they'd set it up very carefully.
"Are you okay with joining her in the lab once she does wake up?"
"Oh, yes." They could work on the dragon, now that one of them was in breakthrough they might actually make it work. Gil would be thrilled. Suddenly his head was full of clockwork and wing joints, which was a lot nicer than the fear and confusion it had been full of a moment ago.
The Baron leaned forward in his seat, all at once intensely alert. "You were helping her build things last night, weren't you."
"Both of them were," said the Lord Heterodyne. "Klaus--"
"Tripling the blast shields," the Baron muttered.
"Yes," said Tarvek. "Oh. All of us?" They could definitely finish the dragon, then.
"It looks that way." The Baron looked like he couldn't decide how to feel about this. Eager and anxious. "...How are you feeling?"
"Fine. Better." It was easier to think about mechanical things than how unlikely it was that the Baron was really going to acknowledge him, or what would happen to his family, or remember Agatha strapped into that chair or the townspeople lying in the corridors with their throats slit. His mind shied away from that, into mechanical solutions. Giant shields for covering whole towns, and giant dragons with built in lockpicks and flamethrowers for rescuing people from prison and….
"You know, perhaps we'd better wake Agatha and Gil," said the Lord Heterodyne, coming over to kneel by the two of them. "Agatha, sweetheart?" He put a hand on her shoulder, and both Gil and Agatha woke with a gasp. Agatha lifted her death ray and Gil clutched at her, either protective or restraining, and looked around wildly until he saw Tarvek.
"Uncle Barry," said Agatha, slumping back and looking mostly relieved. "Are we okay now?"
"Yes. The fight's over, you and your friends are safe."
Agatha sighed and practically melted onto the floor, regardless of Gil's legs, then sat up again all at once. "I need a lab, please."
The Baron stood up and went over to the ship door. "That sounds like a good idea. You go ahead and I'll follow with blast shields."
As far as Gil could tell, everything was mostly okay now. Agatha hadn't shot his father and they were all going to a lab. Only they weren't going to the school, and he dropped back beside his father, who looked rather surprised. "Could we get our dragon?"
"Barry," his father called, and then threw the blast shields across for Barry Heterodyne to catch. "You carry on. I'm taking Gil to get their dragon."
"Ah. Yes, good idea." Barry stepped into Agatha and Tarvek's line of sight as they glanced back for him, and Gil followed his father off toward the school laboratory.
"How are you feeling?" his father asked, looking down at him as they walked.
"Pretty good," Gil said. "All kind of fizzy. Relieved. Ideas all over everywhere. Um...." He looked up and tried to think. Should he not be feeling good? He didn't know what had happened while he was out. "Barry Heterodyne got back okay. You're okay. It sounded like everybody was getting out. Did you find the hive engines and everything?"
"Barry did. And yes, everyone is okay," said his father, before adding, somehow sounding both excited and resigned, "You're also in breakthrough."
"Oh!" He really was going to be a Spark. Everybody else had seemed so sure about it, but he'd always wondered a little if he was going to disappoint them, even though he was pretty sure he could still work with Agatha regardless. "That's good, right?"
"...Yes. If not particularly safe. Including for the rest of us if we don't get Agatha distracted from death rays," said his father. He ruffled Gil's hair. "I'm sure you'll all be fine."
"I think the dragon will be good for that," Gil said. There was something he should tell his father, probably. "Um, I think Tarvek figured out... because I had the beacon. But we had to use it."
"Yes, he knows. And you did have to use the beacon. You did well sending a message with it too, I had no idea you'd learnt military code." Gil's hand was suddenly engulfed by his father's larger one and he looked up, surprised as much as pleased when they were in a corridor -- even if no one else was around -- and his father had put so much effort into hiding their connection.
"I know it was when we weren't supposed to be listening," he said, latching on firmly, "and I knew you'd come no matter what but it was too weird not to tell you what was going on."
"Information is valuable," said his father, distractedly. "Gil. There's something I need to tell you about our plans for the future -- mine and Barry's."
That definitely sounded interesting. "What is it? Do I do something in them?"
"Probably. That's up to you, but I can't imagine you won't. Do you remember Tarvek claiming to be the Storm King?"
"Yes." Vividly. Although Gil hadn't known what to say about it at the time. And... Gil remembered, too, almost as clearly, when Agatha asked if the Storm King was like Baron Wulfenbach and Tarvek had been indignant. He swallowed. "Agatha told him one time if the Storm King was around he obviously needed help and should work with you and her uncle," he said, "but we didn't know. Did you?" Was that why his father had been so worried about what Tarvek knew?
"No. He wouldn't have told us. Making that claim means making a claim for Europa. He really did expect us to kill him once we knew," his father said sombrely, then added, "In case you were wondering, we're not going to. What we're doing is something more like Agatha's plan."
"I didn't think you'd have known because he told you," Gil muttered. Tarvek liked telling people things, but he'd have told Gil and Agatha secrets sooner than the Baron. "...You're gonna work with him how?"
"The Storm King really does have a claim to Europa. At least in the eyes of a lot of its population. They'd be more willing to obey and work with an Empire run by a descendant of Valois, and the point of the Empire was always to stop people fighting. I'd continue to run it until Tarvek was old enough to do so himself." His father stopped, waiting for Gil's response.
Gil hesitated, looking up at him, and then said carefully, "Instead of me doing it... um... eventually." Not that he wanted to think about his father dying.
"Yes." His father's step faltered for a moment. "Did you want to rule Europa?"
Gil rubbed one ankle along the back of his other leg. "I was hoping it wouldn't be for a really long time?"
His father looked away and rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Thank you. This way I'm hoping I'll get to retire some time before dying."
"Um, that sounds nice?" He hadn't really thought about his father wanting to do something different. "I don't want you to die. I don't want Tarvek to die either. Um, I think he might be good at it, as long as it doesn't mean people not talking to him?"
"I don't think it would stop people talking to him?" said his father, sounding rather puzzled.
"I mean he isn't very good about not having people talk to him... um... at least he wasn't when I wasn't--" Gil stopped talking. "I think maybe my head is full of dragons right now and it's hard to be clear."
"Maybe we shouldn't be having this conversation while you're in breakthrough," said his father, smiling. "But you needed to hear it from me, I think. If you mean yourself and Agatha then one of the advantages of this is that none of the three of you will need to keep secrets from each other. I'm not trying to separate you." They reached the school, still quiet this early in the morning, and Otilia let them in. She'd changed clothes, and her wings were damp, the bloodstains fainter. His father opened the laboratory door and said, once they were inside, "And from my point of view, one of the main advantages is that I won't have to keep you secret at all."
Gil stopped and stared up at him. That swept the dragons right out of his thoughts. "Really?"
"Yes. With one of their own already in line to inherit Europa you won't be an obstacle anyone will feel the need to remove. I can acknowledge you as my son and heir to Wulfenbach."
...Acknowledge you as my son.... Gil launched himself upward, hauling on the hand he held for extra leverage, and his father caught him automatically and looked very startled at the hug before Gil buried his face against him. "That will be nice," Gil said, a little bit muffled by his father's collarbone.
His father hugged him back for a long moment. "Yes, it will be," he said softly, then lifted Gil away from him to put him down and pick up the dragon. "For now we'd better be getting back."
Gil raced around to pick up everything else he could think of that looked interesting or dragon-related and then came back to follow his father out the door. They were going to admit it and not have to keep it secret and see each other without sneaking around!
They arrived back at the lab to find Agatha and Tarvek working shoulder to shoulder, with blast shields deployed around them and Barry Heterodyne behind them reaching over to show them things. Gil raced over to see what they were working on and was somewhat alarmed to see it was another, slightly larger, death ray.
"Barry," said his father.
"I was showing them how to make sure it doesn't go off accidentally," Barry Heterodyne explained.
Gil's father put the dragon down on the lab bench in front of Agatha and Tarvek -- carefully not on top of anything they were building but also where they couldn't miss it -- and buried his face in his palm. "That's it. You're forbidden from helping with this."
"...why?"
"Because you had to ask that!" His father tugged Barry up by one arm.
"He's been very helpful," said Agatha, picking something up to add to her death ray.
Gil climbed up beside her. "Do we have to make death rays?" he asked. "We brought the dragon and I want to see if we can finish it, I'd rather fly than shoot at people, come on."
Tarvek looked up far enough to see the dragon and nearly pounced on it. "I still don't like flying," he said a little grumpily, taking pieces out. "You can fly it. But I think we can get it working now."
"You could fly it indoors," said Gil, even if that defeated the purpose a little bit. He grabbed the body and opened it up, he was sure there was a way to make the engine more efficient and reduce the weight.
"I hope you didn't think I'd let you fly it off the side of Castle Wulfenbach," his father said in disbelief.
Gil looked up at him in bewilderment. "Why not?"
"Well -- certainly not as a test."
Agatha peered into the clank's mouth. "I think it needs a flamethrower."
Gil tugged her away. "Priorities. It has to be able to fly first! Here, I brought the little one back for an example."
"That one used to have a flamethrower!" Agatha argued.
"We're on an airship! My father's airship! We don't need a flamethrower!" Wait, it might have been a little early to say that.
Agatha goggled at him. "Baron Wulfenbach's your father?"
"Yes," said Gil, shooting an apologetic look at his father in case he really hadn't been supposed to say it yet. "I don't think it has to be a secret anymore."
"All the secrets blew up," said Tarvek, with an unsettling sort of giggle.
"I was planning to make the announcement after the one about Tarvek," his father said, giving Tarvek a concerned look, "but that's fine."
"Are you okay?" Gil asked Tarvek. "Look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you." He stopped, realising his father was listening, and carried on, "Well, not exactly, but I'm sorry I was worried enough about you finding out to stop talking to you and I won't do it again."
Tarvek looked at him in surprise. "That's a stupid way to keep a secret, acting like you have one," he said. "I didn't tell you everything either and Agatha never said she remembered anything about the Geisterdamen."
"They didn't exactly come up," said Agatha.
"You learnt their language first and never sounded like it at all!"
"Uncle Barry said not to speak it!"
"That's not what I meant," Tarvek said. "I guess it worked, I didn't figure it out until last night. I still can't believe he had a baby with the Queen of Mars."
"Skifander," said Gil. "It's not the whole planet."
"Now you're being pedantic."
"I am not, it's an important distinction, would you call Albia the Queen of Earth?!"
"Uh...." Tarvek frowned. "Okay, no."
"I didn't think so. Especially not if you're gonna be the Storm King."
Tarvek glanced nervously toward the two adults. "He says so."
"He wouldn't lie to you about it," Gil said indignantly.
Tarvek's eyes glittered. "No? How long did you know you were his?"
"That's different!" snapped Gil, feeling his brain go hot and bubbly. "He wasn't pretending he was going to help me or...or that I was important and then taking it away."
"No, he let you think you weren't! He let me think you weren't! I was afraid he was going to experiment on you!"
"You were what? Why would you even think that?" Gil demanded. "Even if I had been an orphan he'd never been mean to me!"
Tarvek clutched at his hair. "People do that! It's not safe to be a Spark without connections!"
"I had Agatha! She's a connection! I didn't need you to protect me from my father!"
"I didn't know he was your father!"
"You weren't meant to!"
"He wouldn't do that to anybody," Agatha said, trying to lean around Gil to reach the equipment on his end of the bench. "And don't hide the welder."
Gil handed her the welder and took a deep breath. "He never promised me anything he couldn't give, anyway. If he wasn't going to make you King he just wouldn't."
Tarvek opened his mouth and then went pale when the person they were talking about cleared his throat and said, "That's right."
Gil looked at him, but he didn't look angry, and then at Tarvek and...every variation of you don't have to be afraid of him seemed both unconvincing and really embarrassing to say in front of the person they were talking about. "No one's going to get hurt," he said firmly, and turned back to the dragon. "...Agatha, don't install the welder, I said we didn't need a flamethrower! Give it here."
Agatha frowned at him. "We might."
"What do you think we'll want to set on fire?" Gil demanded. He considered turning to Tarvek for backup, you could normally count on Tarvek to be against things like flamethrowers on airships, but he was being weird right now.
"I don't know! It's a good capability to have in reserve!" Agatha was starting to sound agitated again.
"I'm not sure we need a dragon that can weld things, though," Tarvek said thoughtfully. "Anyway, don't we need the welder to put it together?"
"Yes, thank you!" said Gil.
Agatha sighed. "I bet we could combine a flamethrower with a gas-based supplementary lifting system--"
"NO!" said both boys together. Out of the corner of his eye, Gil saw his father start forward and Agatha's uncle grab his arm to hold him back. To his relief, Tarvek then started explaining why they did not want to try to engineer that particular combination, and Gil got them back on the subject of wing structure, and after that they started really making progress.