Mist of Shadows
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Dawn and Reincarnation Part 43
🕑 Added 2021-01-05 09:57:42 +0000 UTC"Shit!" Giles cursed when she went from being a 'generic' Enchanter and Magitech specialist with a vague history that had just successfully slashed the king's throat to Rupert Giles, trained Watcher and survivor of the hellmouth. He stared blankly at the dead man, trying to figure out why the king looked like a slightly older version of his Sunnydale appearance and doing his best not to think about 'his' lack of solid memories before two weeks ago or that he was currently in the form of an attractive busty teenage girl with waist length red hair.
'You can have an identity crisis later, you need to deal with the body because walking out of here looking like the king would send the prince on a witch hunt,' Giles mused, trying to work through his new memories for a better solution than screwing everyone over. 'I don't know enough to fake being the king for more than a day or two at most which means I need to let people see the girl leaving.'
He quickly arranged the king's body and covers to hide the wounds from the door then cast a cleaning charm that he'd used a lot in his Ripper days on 'his' dress to remove the blood that had splattered on his previous self when she'd killed the king. He stashed the knife next to the king then headed for the door. He opened the door and whispered to the guards, "He's sleeping."
One of the guards poked his head into the room to look then closed the door softly. "Have a good night," he whispered.
"I'll try," Giles replied, doing his best to sound cheerful and a bit tired, rather than guilty and terrified. The next couple of minutes were a bit of a blur as he used the girl's memories to find his way to the servant's quarters, half expecting someone to raise an alarm. Thankfully, leaving the castle was as simple as taking the 'secret' exits the servant used to stay out of the way.
Leaving the city was slightly harder, if only because he had to wait for the knight guarding the 'secret' door the servants used to bring back supplies from the forest to wander off to take a leak.
0o0o0
"I'll see you soon," Sabrina Morningstar offered weakly, knowing she was lying then turned to look at her cousin, wishing she didn't have to leave.
"Ready cousin?" Ambrose asked warily, arms held tight to his chest to keep from fidgeting.
"What will the other universe be like?" Sabrina asked softly as she stared at the mirror that would send her somewhere else.
"If not an exact copy," Ambrose shook his head slightly, "very close to our own," Ambrose said, keeping his focus on the version of Sabrina that would be leaving.
Sabrina gave the other Sabrina a sad smile as Nicholas and Ambrose started their spell to send her away then turned and focused on the mirror.
Sabrina Spellman barely listened to the first part of the chant that Nicholas and Ambrose were using to rip open a portal in the mirror, wishing she could reach out and hug her 'twin' and never let go but she knew it wouldn't work.
"Split apart the fabric of space and time," Ambrose and Nicholas chanted.
Sabrina Morningstar glanced over the small group that had gathered to see her off, her father who was trying and failing to look stoic despite being the lord of hell, her aunts, her husband who looked like the universe had ripped his heart out and her old boyfriend and twin's love interest, knowing there weren't enough words to untangle everything. She turned to step through the mirror and stared in disbelief when the swirling grey portal in the mirror turned pink. "Is it supposed to do that?"
"No…" Ambrose trailed off as a shirtless athletic looking man in his twenties with dark hair stepped out of the mirror.
"Hello?" Sabrina blurted, doing her best not to get distracted by the man's physique.
Xander glanced over the group of magic users, focusing on the dark haired man that seemed to have the most magic of the group though the older black woman had more than the rest of the group by a large margin save the two white haired twins. "Thanks for the save."
Lucifer opened his mouth to voice his displeasure then closed his mouth when a blonde girl in an old fashioned blue and white dress stepped out of the mirror. "Why are you here?" he asked warily, unconsciously taking half a step away from the thing that looked like a teenage girl.
"Because I have a contract and the Wrackspurts need a good beating," Luna replied as she stepped to the side.
"Wrackspurts?" Zelda demanded then stared when a naked red haired girl with wolf-like ears in a crimson cloak jumped out of the swirling portal.
Willow wrapped her cloak around herself and turned to face the mirror, wanting to make sure nothing followed them out.
Luna pulled a cast iron spherical bomb out of her belt pouch that looked like she'd pulled it out of a Loony Toons episode, complete with a fuse sticking out of the top. "Does anyone have a light?"
"Of course." Xander gestured and lit the fuse on the bomb with a touch of magic.
Luna tossed the bomb through the portal then turned to look at Ambrose with a smile. "You should close the portal."
Ambrose quickly closed the portal. "Who are you?"
"I'm Luna Lovegood. I was contracted by Hecate to improve the local magic school and deal with some minor trouble."
"Minor trouble," Lucifer asked warily.
Luna tilted her head slightly as she scanned the fallen angel. "What else do you call Eldritch Terrors?"
"A dangerous world ending threat," Zelda snapped.
"It depends on your perspective..." Xander trailed off as he went from being Xander the Red Wizard and occasional sky pirate to Xander Harris. 'That's worse than Halloween.'
Willow shivered as she went from Willow the Black Wolf to Willow Rosenberg. 'That's getting really old.'
Lucifer twitched as the man's power level went from something he'd have trouble fighting to something that would rip him apart with ease. 'What the hell are you?!'
"Can you reopen the portal?" Sabrina asked, glancing between the strangers and Ambrose.
"I wouldn't unless you want to end up floating in space without a ship," Luna warned her.
"Floating in space?" Zelda demanded as her gaze flickered over the three strangers.
Luna tilted her head slightly as she looked at Zelda. "What do you think happens to a pocket dimension when you blow it up?"
"Are you saying you destroyed a world?!" Ambrose sputtered.
Luna shrugged. "It was infested by Wrackspurts and it was barely a couple of acres, it just looked larger on the outside. Now, can I get someone to show me to the school so I can start upgrading it?"
"My daughter would be delighted," Lucifer said, volunteering Sabrina.
Zelda glared at Lucifer. "You can't be serious."
"Don't worry, it's for the best," Marie said, lightly touching Zelda's arm.
"What about the time limit?" Sabrina asked, thinking about what the angel had said about her duplicate's presence in the world.
"Overrated," Luna replied cheerfully as she pulled a black silk dress out of her belt pouch and tossed it to Willow.
"Thanks." Willow turned away from the group and worked on pulling the dress on.
"Besides, I should have more than enough time to finish the contract and skip dimensions with Sabrina before the local dimensions rip themselves apart," Luna assured them.
"What type of changes are you making?" Zelda asked.
"Hecate wanted the school to have a larger library and a better dormitory. Not to mention an actual dungeon you can explore for treasure and power," Luna explained as she scanned Marie LeFleur, getting a decent pattern for a spirit that could manifest a human form.
"You want to build a dungeon?" Zelda asked warily.
"Of course, you need a way to test your powers beyond random demons and ghosts showing up," Luna explained.
Prudence studied Willow's wolf like ears. "Do you have a way to hide your ears?"
Willow wiggled her ears. "I'll just tell people they're fake. It's not like anyone is going to look that closely."
"Speaking of people staring, can I get a shirt?" Xander asked.
"Sorry, I'm fresh out," Luna lied as she headed towards the door. "We're wasting time."
Sabrina Morningstar grinned as she followed Luna, fairly sure the other girl was lying.
"Well that happened," Sabrina muttered.
"I'll get you a shirt dearie," Hilda said as she headed for the laundry room, knowing they had some extra uniforms.
"Thanks. I'm guessing you have questions?" Xander asked as he looked around the room.
"That would be an understatement," Ambrose admitted. "What are you?"
"Human, last I checked," Xander replied with a shrug. "Of course, 'human' actually covers a wide range of things."
"I trust that you'll look after my daughter," Lucifer stated firmly then teleported back to hell in a swirl of flames with Caliban, doing his best not to show his unease about the whole situation and about the being that made his skin crawl.
"Is he always that abrupt?" Xander asked.
Nicholas glanced between the strangers. "Is there a reason Lucifer seemed almost scared of your friend?"
Willow finished adjusting her dress then turned around. "No idea, Luna's a sweetheart."
"Lucifer? As in the devil?" Xander asked, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Unfortunately," Nicholas complained.
"If you'll excuse me, I should make sure they aren't changing things they shouldn't," Zelda complained as she headed for the door.
Xander turned to look at Sabrina. "Does that mean you're a princess?"
"It's complicated," Sabrina admitted. "What's Hecate like?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"No idea, we just picked up the job from the Posting Board in the Nexus," Xander admitted.
"Nexus?" Ambrose asked.
"It's basically a place where various dimensions bleed together and a handsome guy with an eyepatch runs a bar," Willow explained, thinking about the man that looked like an older Xander.
Xander shook his head. "There's something a bit off about the guy, it's the madness in his eye. Joking aside, it's a good place to trade news and get jobs."
"Speaking of jobs, what can you tell me about the Eldritch Terrors?" Xander asked, wanting to make sure they weren't going to cause Luna trouble.
"Not as much as I'd like," Ambrose admitted.
0o0o0
Cordelia wasn't sure how to feel when she woke up curled up against Morgana Pendragon with a hangover. On the one hand, she was in a comfortable feather bed with an attractive young lady, on the other hand, she had a hangover and had spent the last several weeks as a male magic user and magic using knight. She vaguely recalled waking up at some point during sex and swapping back to her normal form but everything was sort of bluring together thanks to the wine.
Morgana opened an eye and looked at Cordelia's breasts then closed her eye. "I drank too much."
"Same," Cordelia admitted, knowing she should probably sneak out before someone saw her but not feeling awake enough to find her clothes.
Morgana opened her eyes and sat up when the alarm bell rang, not expecting the door to burst open, revealing Merlin. "Merlin!" she complained, not particularly wanting her friend to see her in bed with another girl and naked.
"Sorry, don't kill me!" Merlin squeaked and covered his eyes with his hands.
"What are you doing in here?!" Morgana demanded, trying not to smile or snicker as her frustration lost to her amusement at her friend's blush.
"Uther is dead," Merlin blurted as he turned so he wasn't looking into the room even though he still had his eyes covered.
Morgana stared at Merlin for a couple of seconds in disbelief, her previous amusement vanishing and leaving her feeling empty despite her feelings towards the king. "What happened?"
"An assassin," Merlin admitted, not sure how he was supposed to feel about the monster's death. He could feel sympathy for Arthur's loss but he wasn't going to feel bad about the king's death considering the man's stance on magic and his opinion about anyone that wasn't nobility.
"Is Gwen with Arthur?" Morgana asked as she slipped out of bed and walked over to grab her robes.
"He's not taking it well," Merlin said, not sure what else to say.
'Damn, I'm as bad as Willow,' Cordelia mused as she watched Morgana pull on a robe. 'Almost, she'd be drooling and she's gorgeous, at least I still have taste.'
Morgana glanced at Cordelia. "Merlin, can you keep an eye on Danny until I get back? I'm not sure how I'd sneak her back out right now."
Merlin frowned slightly when he realized he didn't recognize Cordelia. "Who are you?"
"My lady's entertainment," Cordelia replied, wishing she knew where the hell the rest of the gang was.
"Of course," Merlin assured her.
"We'll talk later," Morgana said, looking forward to asking about his ability to swap between male and female because he was a lot of fun in both forms. 'Now I just have to figure out how to console Arthur about his father's death.'
0o0o0
Ethan twitched and nearly missed the tree branch he was aiming for when he went from being a 'mindless' ninja to his normal charming self. "Bollocks," he cursed as he pushed off and jumped for the next tree branch. He grabbed the trunk of the tree and stopped his forward momentum, no longer seeing a point in chasing the adventurers running around the forest he'd been tasked to guard. 'Yeah, that's annoying, almost as bad as waking up and realizing you're not a teenager.'
He sighed as he realized that he didn't have any memories or knowledge of where he was or why he was trying to keep adventurers out of the forest, just vague memories of running around a forest tossing throwing stars at people. He quickly checked his pockets and smiled when he found his copy of Dawn's island key. 'Okay, that makes things easier, now I just have to find a door.'
He jumped up to the next branch, trying not to focus on the fact that he'd just jumped an impossible distance nearly straight up. 'No point in worrying about it,' he told himself as he jumped to a second tree. He smiled when he glanced around and saw the top of an ancient looking temple sticking out of the forest canopy in the distance. 'Hopefully it still has doors,' he mused as he headed for the temple, jumping from branch to branch. 'If we're going to keep getting scattered, we should look into making more keys.'
'Ninja and Red Wizard skills, it could be worse,' Ethan mused as he continued making his way through the forest. He snorted when he reached the edge of a clearing and saw the ancient temple was surrounded by a maze filled with ninjas and black mages. 'On the one hand, I'm missing some spells I could pick up by watching them fight, on the other hand, I don't have any backup and I'm not sure my necklace actually works against the local magic.'
Ethan embraced the source and wove a gateway in front of him that connected to the top of the temple and stepped through, feeling pretty smug about skipping all of the ninjas and black mages at least until he spotted the six and a half foot tall ninja with dragons scattered over the man's gi standing next to a large throne. "Parley?"
The ninja smirked as he tossed a sword at Ethan.
Ethan screamed when he missed the catch and the blade buried itself in his shoulder almost to the hilt, tossing him off the top of the temple and sending him crashing down into the maze.
The ninja called out, "You are unworthy!"
"Fuck!" Ethan cursed as he carefully grabbed the blade and pulled the sword out of his shoulder, causing more pain and damage than he was comfortable with as the blade managed to hurt like hell on the way out despite his defenses.
He cast his best healing spell on his shoulder then rolled to his feet as a ninja ran into the 'room' and tossed a throwing star at him. He ignored the star bouncing off his other shoulder as he lunged forward and impaled the ninja in the chest with his new blade. "Arsehole."
He checked his shoulder for damage where the star had bounced off then focused on 'reading' the sword when he didn't find any sign of injury. 'It feels sacred and powerful. Damn it, I really need a spell that gives exact numbers.' He reached over and touched the ninja's gi and grinned slightly when he realized it was magic. 'Okay, this might not be so bad, at least until I can find a door or a chest I can use like a door.'
0o0o0
"Huh, that explains why no one has destroyed the Calnarri Empire yet," Dawn mused as she glanced over the schematics of the squid-like ship that she'd just finished scanning. "Their ships are faster and more durable than anything else I've seen in the docks."
Hermione didn't bother looking up from the schematic she was drawing of the spider shaped ship that was docked next to the large Calnarri ship that looked like an octopus holding a glass sphere. "Not to mention they have better artificial gravity and inertial dampeners than most of the ships I've managed to scan."
Dawn glanced at the schematic Hermione was drawing on an electronic notepad then looked back out the window at the spaceships, wishing she could get closer so she could get more details. "You almost sound impressed."
"Their mystical and physical sciences are impressive, their stance on slavery and sentient rights, not so much," Hermione replied. "Some of them are decent enough people but most of them don't see anything wrong with eating slaves or volunteers."
"Which seems like a really good reason not to break the rules or do something stupid like volunteer to get chopped up," Dawn said as she turned her attention towards a freighter as a pair of what she was guessing were tractor beams hauled the ship to one of the piers only a couple of ships were attached to. "I was sort of hoping someone had replicators or transporters."
"The Calnarri have a magitech version of transporters, it's another reason no one likes to fight them, they don't have any moral issues with transporting explosives onto another ship or stealing crew and scrapping pirate ships in their empire," Hermione explained.
"If they're this nasty, why haven't a bunch of species joined forces to destroy them?" Dawn asked.
Hermione sighed as she noticed a green skinned Calnarri floating over. "Because they're scrupulously polite and generally follow most local laws if they leave Calnarri space."
"In other words, don't poke the sleeping dragon and it won't eat you?" Dawn asked.
"Basically," Hermione admitted.
"Only idiots poke dragons when they're sleeping," the Calnarri said as stopped near Dawn and Hermione.
Dawn glanced at the naked teenager's mist like legs then looked at her face, wondering if there were any ugly Calnarri. "Oh?"
"Take the Batarians for example, those bastards like raiding outposts and innocent people for slaves," the girl complained. "That's a good way to piss everyone off."
"Personal?" Dawn asked.
The girl shrugged. "Not really, I have some friends that had family on a colony world that got hit but none of them were particularly close. It's more the principle of the thing. It would be one thing if the 'pirates' hadn't been backed by the Batarian government, we would have just collected our people and destroyed the pirates but the Batarian diplomats were rather smug about how there was nothing some minor colony could do. I don't think they're going to enjoy the response which is why it always pays to be polite."
"Makes sense to me," Dawn agreed before Hermione could argue and get them in trouble.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
Yep.
Chichi son
*Blinks* It sounds like they're in multiple settings this time?
