Swindon, England - December 1990
In some ways, Fandom was bad for me. I had learned to let down my guard. Part of that came from the tight-knit community and the lack of threat there. Part of that came from knowing the house was safe, especially considering the skills my housemates brought to the table. Still, I wasn't reckless, especially when it came to Friday's life. He was - and is - the most important thing in my life and I can't explain how Pheces was able to take him from my mother's house, so I can't help but blame Fandom and its comforts and people who weren't here to help me now.
Sorting things out in the BookWorld had given me the well-needed morale boost to sort things out in the real world as well. The evening after I returned, on the Toad News Network broadcast that came after Name That Fruit that Uncle Mycroft insisted on watching, the announcement came that SpecOps was officially being closed down. Miles was on the phone to Joffy immediately, giving him the inside scoop that TNN lacked. The official word was budget issues. I knew that Pheces was behind the closure. I should have taken the hint and taken Friday back to Fandom where he was safe. Instead, we stayed in Swindon. The threat of the Minotaur finding us was no longer a problem with the new BookWorld filters in place and his last sighting being somewhere in the Crime genre. Now there was a new threat and this was one, I felt, I could handle. My father said I would know when it was time to face Pheces, to take the fight to him instead of running away. This was the time. My father, however, hadn't told me that my actions would lead to my son being kidnapped.
I climbed out of my Speedster and locked the door behind me. The top was already up because of the rain that didn't seem to be letting up any time soon. A freezing wind followed me as I pocketed my keys and felt for the pistol at the small of my back. It wasn't the ideal place for a weapon, but I couldn't risk Pheces' men knowing I was armed right away.
If someone had told me two years ago that I would be in this position, I still probably would have believed them, but I wouldn't have been able to imagine how I felt right at this very moment. My son was being held against his will by the very man who had chased my husband into another timestream. This was the man who had shot me only weeks ago, who had tried to destroy the fabric of fiction itself and who had threatened to strip away my life piece by piece. I had no doubt that Pheces planned to kill Friday and that thought terrified me more than anything I had ever faced before. If it wasn't for the sheer amount of adrenaline running through my system and the absolute desperation of a mother trying to save her son, I would have been in a much worse state than I was now. For now, my body would have to settle for trembling and thankfully due to the weather it was hard to see that I was anything but tense and cold as I walked into a trap.
I had walked into many traps in the past and I knew I would no doubt walk into them again in the future if given enough time. This was one of the few times that I knew what I was walking into and I did so willingly. Some would have called it foolish to walk right into the hands of your enemy at his request. I would have agreed, were it not for the facts that I would do anything for Friday and that I had a plan.
***
When you're facing your arch-nemesis of the moment (I had several; it was important to distinguish these things), one of the few things he never expects you to do is to ask him to turn on the television. We were standing in a warehouse, a suitable place for such underhanded meetings, and it was difficult not to tense up from the bitter cold. As it was, I was already tense - not frozen, but poised and ready to act whenever it was necessary to finally make my move.
Shrugging, Pheces acquisced my request. He sauntered over to the television set that his guards used to pass the time at this outpost and reached for the remote control. I risked glancing at Friday, who was being kept in a large cage as if he was an animal and who was watching the events quietly. He knew something was very wrong, that the men who had kept him here were not the good guys and that I wouldn't let anything bad happen to him. I couldn't tell if he was scared, but then Friday had always been able to keep things from me, much more easily than I would have liked. It was probably for the best in this case, since if he was in distress, I wouldn't have been able to keep my cool.
The television set flickered to life. The smugness on Pheces' face faded as he flicked from station to station. None of the normal programs were on. Instead, they all showed the same story. They showed what I had been doing in my spare time for the last year, digging deeper and deeper into Pheces' history, trying to find what Landen had found that had set Pheces off in the first place. I found more than I expected about Sullivan Pheces' history and his plans and now the entire story was being broadcast on national television.
"I learned a few things about computers and getting your message out through the media," I explained, sending my silent thanks to Seattle a few decades in the future for that assistance. Pheces didn't move. His back was still facing towards me. "Landen knew what he was doing. I found his notes." That wasn't entirely true. My father had delivered them to me as a nudge in the right direction. "Copies have been sent to every major news outlet in Europe, as well as the President and other government officials. No one will ever trust you again."
He still didn't move and it was beginnin to make me nervous. A brief moment of doubt made me wonder if relying so heavily on my friends was such a good idea. It passed immediately. I knew I could trust each and every one of them with my life and, more importantly, with Friday's. Bowden had the broadcast well in hand. I had to trust that the others were handling their own tasks just as well.
"You said this was about me." I had to bait him into talking. The silence wasn't healthy.
He turned towards me, but the abject horror I had expected on his face wasn't there. He was grinning, a malicious look in his eyes. "Always about you," he agreed. "Very bold of you, to show this to me. I could kill your boy right now. There are men with guns. They would do it if I told them to. What makes you think I won't right now?" He didn't sound as confident as he normally did.
I paused a beat before answering. "Because there's a sniper on the roof with you in his sights and if you do, he'll put a bullet in your head." I glanced at the two men guarding Friday who had their weapons trained on me. "A sniper for each of you two as well, gentlemen."
"How do you know I didn't already dispose of them? Don't you think I would have accounted for back-up?"
"You didn't because I have a small earpiece in my right ear with my brother-in-law's voice telling me they're doing fine." She wasn't above using technology from someone else's future.
"How do you know-"
"Enough," I interrupted. "We could play this game all night. I have the upper hand and nothing you can say will make me doubt that." I sounded more convinced than I actually was. Behind us, the television continued to discredit Pheces to the entire nation. Considering the weather and no sane person wanting to be out in it, most of the nation was probably watching at this time of night and wondering why 65 Walrus Street wasn't on. Considering this was turning out to be a real life soap opera, I didn't think they would mind terribly. The broadcast came to the part that revealed Pheces' origins.
Sullivan Pheces had appeared on the scene with very little fanfare almost twenty years ago. No one had heard of him before, but he rose to power in the defence contracting industry quickly and made a name for himself as a shrewd businessman with a natural flair for power. His ideas were eccentric enough to gain him some notority, but he knew when to hold back. He was, oddly enough considering all he had done, the sensible one in the family. I had wondered why he was so adamant about destroying my life. There was the incident with Landen, but his words in the Council of Genres chamber made it sound as if he'd been planning for Landen to disappear all along. For weeks, I had done very little but think about what happened before he shot me. There was a certain familiarity that shouldn't have been there, a vindictiveness to his plans that made it personal rather than dismissing me as an annoyance. I hadn't figured it out for sure until I returned home and did some research, but my findings only confirmed what I had suspected.
"Why all of this, Cocytus?" I asked, using his real name. The younger brother of Acheron Hades looked back at me, showing that glint of recongition again. This time, the recognition was mutual. Acheron had been my opponent several years ago and he too had shot me. Then I had fought their sister Aornis, whom I hoped was gone for good considering she tried to erase my memory of Landen. I knew long ago that there were other members of the Hades family, but I hadn't expected to come face to face with another of the clan.
"It's always about you," he repeated.
"Yes," I replied, "we've cleared that up."
"When you were Acheron's protoge, it was all about you. He moved on, of course, but it ate at him that you turned him down. He said it was refreshing, but nobody turns down a Hades." I was tempted to say that I turned down several just fine, but thought it best not to bait him any more than I had to. "You killed him and you tangled with my sister and still came out smelling of roses." I begged to differ, but now wasn't the time for semantics. "I guess you could call this revenge for that," Cocytus mused, walking a few steps towards me, "but I never did care all that much for my siblings. I've always been better than them, you see. Acheron had all the glory. He was a little too classic villain for my liking. It worked for him, but after a while it simply became tacky. Aornis - now she had a sense of subtlty and finesse, but even her little mind tricks couldn't do you over. Neither of them has the patience I do. It took me years to get to where I am, to be in a position where I could strip away every single thing you cared about." He turned and looked at Friday. "He's not the last piece like I wanted, but I figure that once he's gone it will make tearing the rest of your family and the country apart all the more painful for you. Pain and patience is what I have to offer and come tomorrow all your efforts will be wasted once my public relations team discredits you. You don't think I wasn't ready for my enemies, do you?"
"No," I replied calmly, "I'm sure you're quite ready. There's one thing you didn't account for."
"Hmm?" he asked, not seeming too worried.
"I'm wearing a camera and microphone, there's a van down the street receiving it and that broadcast," I gestured to the television, "is on a five minute delay." The beginning of our conversation started playing on the screen. The explanation of 'Pheces' and his antics had been stage one. The live broadcast of his confessions and odd behaviour was the next part to the show. "Is there anything you'd like to tell the people of England before you're arrested, 'Commissioner'?"
Miles' voice in my ear told me what was about to happen. The door where I had entered burst open, as did the one at the other end of the warehouse. I drew my weapon, but Miles' and his team had already fired tranquilizers at the two guards. I rushed to put myself between Cocytus and Friday, but by the time I had spun around to face him, he was gone.
"Find him!" Miles barked. "He can't have gone far."
All of the Hades family had unexplained powers above and beyond the human race. Cocytus was no exception and I knew this well. A lot of thought had gone into working out that he knew how to make himself disappear when he needed to and how to make himself noticed when he wanted to be noticed. There was one small problem with Cocytus' escape plan. Two, actually. He may have been able to fool a room full of humans, but he never counted on a neanderthal and a vampire hunter waiting for him outside. There was no fooling a 'thal and Spike didn't miss when Stig pointed Cocytus out.
"Hello, Stig," I called as he returned his borrowed tranquilizer gun to Miles. I was busy unlocking Friday's cage and pulling him out of there. I hugged him tightly, kissing his hair and face to the point where, while he was glad to see me, he fussed and pushed me away at all the attention. I hefted him on my hip. He was getting far too big to carry, but today I would make an exception. No one could have pulled him away from me if they'd tried.
"Hello, Ms Next," Stig my neanderthal friend greeted, then spoke to Miles while I checked Friday over for any sign of harm only to find none. A wave of relief washed over me as the adrenaline started to fade. "You will find what you are looking for outside the door. Mr. Stoker has him." When Stig had my attention again, he addressed me. "We are not violent or interested in the affairs of humans," he said to me now as he had before and would again many times in the future, "but we can make an exception for you."
"Thank you, Stig," I said and I meant it. Success today in bringing Cocytus 'Pheces' down and bringing Friday back safe and sound had relied heavily on my friends. I couldn't have done it without them and I realised just how much I missed their presence in my life. The Minotaur and Cocytus had kept us apart, but now neither of them were stopping me from returning home for good.
***
By the time we were packed and ready to leave, everything seemed like a bad dream. Friday was safe and sound. I had managed not to get shot this time and Miles assured me over breakfast that the ChronoGuard was taking good care of Cocytus, who had been put in a time loop until such time as he was to be tried and, when found guilty, sentenced. Despite 'Commissioner Pheces' being outed as Cocytus and his nefarious plans being revealed, the government decided it was best to shut down SpecOps anyway, effective immediately. Bowden, Stig, Spike and Miles were now out of a job. They had severence pay to tide them over, but it was difficult to cope with the sudden loss, especially when they all knew that their work was important even if the government officials didn't see it that way.
Miles would probably be able to find work with another law enforcement agency, but there wasn't a lot of work for a LiteraTec, a neanderthal who deals with unlicensed creatures, and a supernatural hunter. "I was thinking," Bowden said, surprising me, "that we could continue our work. Freelance, perhaps."
"Staking vampires doesn't pay the bills," Spike replied. "Well, not anymore."
I intervened with an idea. "You could set up a front company. It could pay the bills and keep you busy when there's no other work, as well as fund any dealings and keep them out of the sight of officials. Something like, I don't know," I tried to think of something encouraging, "Carpets? You have a head for running a business, Bowden."
Bowden nodded, but seemed unconvinced. Whatever happened next would need some time to be worked out. "We could always use you, Thursday," he told me and thoughts of returning home came to the forefront again.
My mother and Aunt Polly had said something about coming home as well. There was nothing here stopping me now, but there was something in Fandom making me hesitate. Friday and I had made a home there. We had a life, odd as it was, and it was comfortable even though it was technically a hideout. Friday had grown up with some interesting people in the BookWorld and in Fandom, but he'd had very little time with his family. I wanted him to know his relatives and to get to know his father.
That was the one thing holding me back - Landen. The threat had passed, but I still hadn't heard from my father about bringing Landen back from where he'd been side-slipped into another timestream. In Fandom, it was easy to block out the rest of my life. I thought about Landen every day, but in Fandom I had come to get on with my life and hold onto the hope that something would work itself out one day. Here, I didn't have that luxury. This was where we had built our life and where it had been taken away more than once. I didn't know if I could live here without Landen.
"I'll think about it," I said finally. The trip back to Fandom, this time by portal rather than through my father's assistance, was uneventful, but as we settled back in at 33 Apocalypse, I couldn't help but dwell on thoughts of moving back to Swindon and I wondered how much longer we would call this house 'home'.
[OOC: First person because of the trip home. She'll be back to normal third person tomorrow HOORAY. NFB/NFI due to distance. Story arc of doom is OVER and, uh, this may be tl;dr. It's okay. It's DONE HOORAY! HOORAY I SAY!]