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It had been some strange good-byes. A few people on the ship did get off. Most of them TCY technicians who had climbed onboard at the bequest of the station's "systerm admins". Mikai himself promised he'd make sure they made it back to the station in one piece. He did seem to laugh when a side-remark to the 'drag-queen' comments flew his way. But he took them in stride. For a few moments, he just seemed to want to bask in the collective presence of people.

Tempest and Atlas were greeted by their other family members whom Azteca's wish had 'summoned' from across the galactic expanse. Duey strolled up in stoic fashion, a dwarvish bear-hug embracing the girl whom had called him back from their place of theft. Donny came down with Monkey in one of the Gemini's ... returning Kaelin's embrace just as strongly as she bestowed her own. He also had something for their seeming-immortal last-minute crew member. It was the biomonitor feeds for Mikai that were taken from the AFB he had stowed-away on. The news it brought to the man struck him full-on.

It also brought the presence at the edge of the group a tall robed figure with staff riding a destrier of strange proportions. The steed was as large as any clydedale of earth, but it's white main was whispy and it's face bore some merger of draconic features. On the horse was the great sword the man-being once carried everywhere.

Cameron Roth.

Mikai strode from the crowd holding Donny's digipad in his hands, the first signs of tears in his eyes. "Did you know?" The man took his hood down, revealing stark features and dark hair with hazel-gray eyes. For a moment, he was mortal. "I did ... why do you think this was so important?" They embraced as old friends finally, the eons of time finally being bridged once more. "But, how?" "Your father I believe, he sent you out into the will of Amateresu. She sent you here, to the Praetorian Galaxy. But this is not your home, nor was it ever."

A few people watched intently and turned to Donny, but it was Veil who spoke up ... "it's policy, everyone who is on the ship is bioscanned for contagions and the like. While Mikai was in the holding cell, his DNA was gathered through the respiration system. The analysis returned positive. He's Terran. Circa 800AD from what I can see in the genetic drift map we keep." The shock and surprise was evident. Slade blinked. Cambdon bust out laughing. "No wonder his spoke Japanese ... OLD JAPANESE."

Cameron and Mikai walked back to the group, Roth's voice being 'mortal' here ... "I have a favor to ask of you, my students. I need you to take someone home. Finally." It was no doubt Slade would be among the first to step forward, but others graciously did so.

"So now what?" came a question from the crowd, Titan's voice directed to Cameron. "If you are who we think you are, now what?"

"You go home..." he said with a smile.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The last of the shuttles pulled people back up to the Amaglam waiting for them, Cameron once again seated on the destrier surrounded by the TCY technicians. The Amalgam pulled upwards and away into the skies over Havenstone.

"You still didn't get him to join you."

"No, I didn't ... but he's on a great path all his own. One that I would be honored to walk with him in fact."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It took a few hours for them to get home through the Super Gate, the coordinates for such imprinted to the systems onboard. When they cleared the Super Gate, they registered the effects of the temporal difference. It took Donny a few minutes to work it out based upon their readings. It wasn't the Super Gate. It wasn't Sub-Space. It was a difference in the temporal flux of the Praetorian Galaxy as compared to that of the Milky Way. "So how long?"

"One Month, little less ... 29 days give or take a few hours. We're compensating now."

They dropped out of sub-space back into the lunar boundary of Earth Orbit. Some people on the bridge were near to tears. Within the space of a dorsal Oculus, Mikai took in his first view of his homeworld alongside Slade and Tempest. "What's it like?" "Complicated, Busy. Bruised." "Beyond Hope?" The two men looked at one another. "Never".

He sat quietly in the small room. Their arrival had been masked by the fact they had a vehicle no one had ever seen them in. Hell, they didn't look like anyone special to be honest. The two of them had arrived and greeted Esmeralda with warm arms. But even as they did, they realized she was not long for this world. But her spirit was the same indomitable force it had been when they first met her more than a decade ago in Louisiana. Angel had told Donny to just hack the locks, for their keys because even she didn't know the code anymore.

The yard was fantastic. It had been a while since they had been here, and the old bayou mother had done many things with her time ... much of it tending to the yard. Spanish moss hung in the silver maples and old oaks around the grounds, and in many places it had been coerced into woven baskets that held flowering plants of many types. A few of the barghests lingered around the yard, all of them Billie's children, some of them many years old now themselves. Donny was lost in it all. It took him over a day to let himself be convinced that he had never stayed here before. Now he regretted his absence deeply.

Billie reminded him quietly that he was here now, so was Kaelin. It was important to her, this litter she knew would be different. He had known something was different, he could feel them squirming within her ... yelps that touched ears only he could hear. When the litter was delivered, it went well with Esmeralda's caring aid ... several spells she had developed over the years. Kaelin was helping with the newborn pups, four of whom bore all the normal traits of their parents. But three of them, they were entirely different. One brassy gold, another onyx black and the third was shady gray. And for all accounts, they looked like regular mastiff's.

When King was shown the three, he sniffed them funny and licked them for a moment. But when they yelped, he backed away as if struck by the fear power. He knew they were different too. Donny and Kaelin debated for a few moments before he called Cynthia from Indiana. They wanted to make sure what they were seeing, and they figured this would at least keep Saeder-Krupp from stealing the pups themselves if they were given, albeit limited, access from the get-go. That and Billie was familiar with the Professor. She was after all her principle veterinarian.

Donnie went into strange fits at night however. It was not really unexpected. The trauma and stress of the previous weeks finally were working their way out of the technomancer. It reached it's peak however when he woke up screaming on the third night after the pups were born ... and most of the Fort Myers Wireless Grid went down unexpected. He'd be okay, he had suffered worse. But for now, he had to be as close to human as was possible. It was noticeable however to everyone present by the time Eisrach arrived that next day that the visit was therapeutic for Donny on so many levels. Billie was and had been a part of his family since almost the beginning. In fact, everyone thought it strange to realize that Billie was now 16 years old herself. It was also a chilling realization to some.

That realization struck home two nights later. The howls woke everyone up at the south florida home. Donny was already awake and on the porch. When Kaelin came outside, she felt cold. The air was unexpectedly chilly. The younger hounds were circling fitfully, for they could feel it. Their elder sire had come. Donny was sitting on the porch next to Billie. In the middle of the yard, Kray walked out of the ground fog. Right behind was Kesh, Kesh Meridian ... the Enchanter's son. The 'huntsman' to this pack. But tonight he looked the part of the Master of the Hunt. The glamour was upon him. The beast spirit that often accompanied Kesh was channeling as they approached.

Kesh walked up to Donny while Billie didn't move as she lay on the porch next to him. Kaelin realized there were tears on Donny's cheeks. Billie was already gone. Donny had felt it start to happen, the old link the Enchanter had given him and her all those years ago finally came to an end. It's course had been run.

"You have let her go Donny ... she wanted you here for this too you know" came the hunters deeply compassionate voice. "It's her time, she is going to run forever now. She's earned it."

The young man leaned over and draped himself around his departed friend. But Kesh was reaching out to the barghest's form now himself. Something traveled along him, something eldritch. A moment later, Billie's body was gone even as the words trickled from Donny's mouth.

Across the yard in the mists, Kray was joined by his first daughter finally. The transition had taken place. She would be a part of their spiritual world now. It made him smile strangely to see her. Her coat was as vibrant as it had been when she had ran with them in Phoenix as a yearling. Her eyes were alive. Kesh reached up to Donny's temple and lifted from there the last karmic traceries of the linking magics. The link that had on more than one occasion saved not only Donny but many of his friends as well.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

When they went back inside, Donny sat down on the floor next to the welps large woven basket that had served as their mother's bed for years now. He sat there alone for a while, he needed to be alone with them. With his memories of her. Overheard in the vastness of the stars over their world, a vast beautiful song whispered across the hyperspace lanes as Askani mourned the passing in her own way, a reflection of what Donny's heart cried out with.

"They can stay with me young Denizen..." stated Esmeralda rather flatly. "But those three, I think those are yours now."

He looked up at the woman, her own black skin sheening a softer gray in the current light her eyes gleeming deeply amid the shadows of the pre-dawn.

"I think you're right 'Relda. Someone has to give them names after all."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Gemini departed later that morning. The vacation was over. And even in spite of the night before, Donny felt ... new somehow. In an over-shoulder bag three squinty eyed large pups blinked at the console. Donny turned and smiled at Kaelin, who was pulling the shady-gray one out for a moment, it's yelp for milk answered by a spongy=tipped bottle she produced.

"Got any ideas for names?"

A moment of silence as they raced across the Gulf before veering southwards .. "Yeah, I think so. I know it may not make sense, but the names came to me last night afterwards. I think she named them already ... and it just took me a while to hear her say it." When she heard the names, she bust out laughing. Two boys and one girl. It made incredible sense. She still didn't resist smacking him once for good measure however.

"Mirage ... Deus ... and ... Morgan ..."

"Yes, that one fits you well."

She couldn't believe she was saying this to a grown man. She disliked doing this, but Donny had insisted her helping this guy only a few days after they had returned from where ever it was they had gone to. She also admitted that the more time she spent with the man, her curiosity piqued a tad bit higher. It wasn't difficult. She had a small squadron of bodyguards with her at all times anyway as she'd basically been functioning as an executive officer for the last month anyway. Archer, Angel and Doc had been there to assist of course ... but only Ms. deBurg in San Angeles had been of any real help. Archer was great with personnel, if constantly flirtatious. Angel and Doc were fine, as long as it handled medically-oriented divisions. Larsik ... ugh, that man. He was stunningly arrogant when the others were gone, thank God that Donny had left Josh in command of the space assets.

"I don't understand why you people always wear grays and blacks ... "

She had to smirk a bit at hearing that for he was sort of correct. People these days did wear darker, dimmer, colors. But hey, it only let them blend in better. Their world had come full frontally blasted by non-terrestrial invaders, and proof had come out that many non-terrestrials were violent groups. And while none of the world's cities were on fire anymore, and (re)construction had even begun in several of them, it was obvious that people had finally been impacted by the Sixth World. For instance, she was in Shanghai currently. It had escaped bombardment and secondary ground forces completely and thus remained a fully functional metroplex.

Better than the Emerald City of Seattle where she was from. Massive reconstruction was happening there. The Ares and Mitsuhama complexes there were being massively renovated, but on the flipside the cities elevated rail system would get an expansion. But most of her favorite stores were just inoperable there. That and for some odd reason, Slade felt that having this guy somewhere in southeast Asia might serve some purpose.

Speaking, she turned to look at the guy. He'd flown in to meet them again this morning, otherwise he was constantly moving back and forth between them and North America. He'd taken a few days to acclimate himself back, catch up with family ... but otherwise, he stayed near this guy at all times. Probably a good idea. The man insisted on carrying that heirloom katana with him everywhere. Getting it licensed as well as documented was itself a pain. She'd seen it drawn during that time frame however, and had to admit, it seemed a marvel of craftsmanship.

"Mikai ... japanese statesmen of your standing do not need to constantly show how wealthy they are all the time it'll invite ... oh forget it." She smiled at Slade whom was only partially putting any of his weight onto the cane that she knew was perhaps the most lethal thing on the planet now. She knew he was about to say something about inviting thugs to attempt to rob him, but even he seemed at a loss for consistency when talking to the guy.

"It is my own ... credit ... is it not? I want to buy what I want to buy."

And of course the salesman whom was helping them, as well as it seemed half the stores sales staff, fretted about doing the bidding and performing their job with such zeal as to be ... almost a comedy to watch as a bystander.

"So after we get done here, we are going to arrange for your travel to inland China. You'll be able to see the Three Gorges Dam as well as the Mystic Mountains. Several of the chinese communities should give you an idea of the diversity of the interior displays itself."

"And after we get back to Shanghai, then we're going to Japan, right?"

"Yes, but that's not for a few days. I've been advised to give you plenty of time to figure some details out before we arrange for your escort to Japan."

"It is my understanding that Shiv will be joining our party in the interior, yes?"

"Shiv? Oh, you mean Mr. Markovanich ... yes. He has other business to attend to, but I am told he will be catching up with us for a few days when we arrive in Chongqing. I've made sure you arrangements will be well cared for."

"You will not be coming with us then Ms. Rachel? I do find your presence most soothing."

"I will be coming, but we're setting up a series of small offices so I can work as well. Someone has to run our businesses while the big bosses are away."

"Of course, perhaps you can show me how to assist you?"

Slade nearly hacked a major hairball. Mikai was flirting with the woman and amazingly, she was almost blushing. He had to get in touch with his mother and see if she could be convinced to join them in Chongqing and help save Rachel. Of course, Mikai might flirt with her too. All he could think to himself however was he couldn't let his sister get anywhere near this guy.

For himself, this was relaxing. He'd arrived at his cabin less than a day after they were back planetside. His brother had gone to Barbados to bask in the Caribbean sun. He came up here to Baikal's eastern mountains for some extreme solitude. He wanted to write everything down while it was still relatively fresh in his mind. It also just felt good to be back to his own self ... his human self anyway. Catseye was literally curled up in the fireplace he'd put into action shortly after arriving and just enjoying doing nothing. He'd brought with him literally several reams of expensive paper and equally expensive ink.

He'd been up here for days, venturing down to Molokon to place orders for supplies and get back in touch with the 'first guys' he'd met in Lodge before. He knew he'd venture down to have an evening or two with them, especially since Valentin had to get him a replacement dish for his satcom at the cabin. He also had been in touch with several of those he needed to be. They'd not replaced him, but he would have to pay for the missed meeting at a relatively soon point. He also had to keep an appointment set for a few days in China to help Mikai come to acclimate to his homeworld again.

But for now, he kept writing. He'd already filled dozens of pages with image-sketches and statements. A whole treatise on subspace displacement and theorem had started to take shape. But for now, he just kept writing. He knew there was a greater conversation happening, he could see it in the winds. He was a big subject within that conversation. It was one he had come to readily expect.

By the morning of the sixth day, Cambdon had had just about enough of sunning himself. He'd also begun to get his thoughts together on what he wanted to do soon. He jumped into the water, dived, shifted and once he was several kilometers out, he shifted again, to hyper-Tiger and made his way around to Al Tor'mil. Once there he went to the market there and made several purchases, paper, cloth, writing materials. These he put into a sack and made his way East once more, though this time he did not fly... he felt the need for speed... to feel the wind moving through his fur and to see the landscape go screeching past him, from there he went East... it took him a couple of days to reach Siberia, stopping every now and then for food, but he made it.

Once in Siberia, he made his way through the various outposts for the Landmarks, eventually catching up with his mother. She obviously enjoyed the conversation with him, though she did suggest to him Match.com, but that site was down right now... the reconstruction had slowed their servers down, and there wasn't much matchmaking there. So he was going to consider looking around for himself.

He spent several more days at his den and getting back with his friends in Magadan, even enjoying the meeting they had.

He stood quietly in the ante-room, now filled for other purposes. It had once been the repository for the 12 Books of Ethshar, but as they were now gone ... vanished of their own volition (or more likely their author's) upon their return to Earth ... he had converted the chamber into something more suitable.

A Crypt.

There were dozens of bodies now entombed into the walls and he had spent some hours working on pictoglyphs and caricatures fitting to them whom had dwelt here for those many years. He had placed them within their individual places with first for some reason, but wasn't actually certain.

"Maedus ... " the soft voice from behind him was reaching out to him. Comfort him or at least attempt to console him. But right now, he wasn't sure he wanted consoling. "I'll be along shortly, are they back?" "Yes, Gordon is in the gardens with Robert now."

He joined them a few moments later, their faces a mix of concern and analytical review. He knew some of the topics they wanted to speak of with him. Common niceties were exchanged, but when the subject eventually got around to his own plans ... he simply answered them ".. right now I don't have any. I don't know what I want. This ... trip ... hurt me. I don't feel like I'm entirely myself anymore. That part of me that is my Magic feels like it's been sifted through, filtered and reshaped somehow and dropped into a body that isn't really it's own. My attempts to ensure certain actions and resources for others may have overextended me in ways I certainly did not foresee."

"Maedus, there are some who want you to answer for your last actions and statements. There are also those that are all but begging you to help with the restorations that are happening around the world. I, we, are afraid that if you go back out in the public spotlight right now that you will literally be overwhelmed, over-sought and perhaps even ultimately over-reaching. The only way any of us can see this to work out is for you to go either into deep hiding or to formulate the Lodge of Past Masters and commute your knowledge and skills to the others enough so as to defer as much as can be done so.

Veil put her hands on her husbands shoulders to lend him strength. But he could feel her own concerns trickling across their link as well. He rose steadily next to her, placing one of her hands into both of his and looking at her deeply as he started to respond. "Gentlemen, I cannot make my final decision just yet but I do understand and hear your concerns. However, I cannot stop being who I am either. I will try to find a more subtle manner to work at first for a bit, give me some time to rediscover my own legs and then my Path again. But I can only confirm to you both that as I am not passed from this Life as yet, I can only imagine what works I will become involved with."

"Maedus ... the problem is your statement at the United Nations last month. Many of them have never feared you before that day and now ... well now they do."

He turned and looked at Robert whom had spoken just then, then to Gordon whose face was containing a bit more concern than Descayne's.

"You always were just a bit too selfish."

The room went dead silent. Descayne was staring at Maedus with pure shock obvious on his face.

"You are afraid that I will expose the Lodge. You are concerned for your own projects you have going in North America, and now I believe Africa as well. You aren't worried about me at all, you're worried about your own agenda falling under unwanted scrutiny."

Descayne's face went flush red, his anger was evident. "What my agenda may or may not be should only be your concern enough to worry that it is furthering the Lodge's membership and resources at large."

"And if that were all it was about, then I'd not have a problem. But I've seen it before from you Robert. I'm aware of the Southern Brotherhood ... it's part of why I reacted once before the way I did. I'm also aware that it is not only Mikado who had strong ties to the Ordo Maximus though yours are bit more forward thinking than his were."

Gordon was turning to look at Descayne now, wondering what it was he had missed all this time. Robert turned only momentarily to the other past master and before remarking aloud .. "you are both not from this world, neither of you have any authority over me or the Lodge ... but I still retain such over you."

"No Robert, you don't. In fact, if it were for my own meddling in time, you'd still be as dead as the day I shot you."

Veil turned to look at Maedus, her mouth agape. Gordon seemed to smile slightly, for it was a detail that the two men had shared some months ago. Robert grew only angrier. What happened next would have repercussions far reaching indeed.

Boho spends 3 days with the prawn then heads to replace his tomahawk from his tribe.

jagged well be trying to make up to his partner for being gone for so long with out any word. gets on the line with cityscaps to set up a meet and greet, about an idea he has that might help out and bring a little more cash also. after setting up the time for the meet and greet he jumps in and helps with removal of all the debre around town. thank the kids for watching the new server and letting them know this weekend i am going to have a cook out and they better be there ( with a smile on my face ) then send text message to to all my friends and invite them all for the cook out (request rep if they can make it and how many there bringing. ( if to many are coming might have to rent a place for the cookout )

Yes, it's been a while since I posted anything other than Karma or a date remark on here. But as Joanna has missed last game, and I need an outlet for a few as I'm still awake at this hour.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

September 26, 2074 : St. Louis Missouri : Gateway Arch Park and the Eastern Downtown District

Shiv was standing barely a hundred meters on the other side of the Arch. It was one of those moments where he was wishing this was all some kind of Quest of Power or Combat or other semi-idiotic thing that his oft-times impulsive nature got him into. He was less than 10 meters behind the demon that had sought to end his life more than once in the last nearly two decades. He and his brother were in the middle of a literal army of combatants that just didn't seem to end. As far as he cast his vision, he could see hordes of beings formed into something of a march.

A march right through into downtown St. Louis.

Tempest, was plowing through literally dozens of targets at a time, and still the numbers kept coming. The giants that were in the first waves were at least thinning out some finally. But hadn't ended. The immense, almost cadaverous, blue=ish white, ice-draping, dracoforms were still coming. There were things that were vagely humanoid with wings and seemingly endless arrows. Still other things that resembled nothing from his world save perhaps a Protean after a trip through a zoo.

His gamble had paid off though. At least by taking the form of Menster, of Nemesis, and dropping his masking he had gotten the Demon who was now turning his attention towards the source of the hordes. He had bet that one Demon Lord didn't necessarily get along with another one. It had been a risk, but only a minor one. He at least now knew who the invading Demon Lord was. His protuberus fat ass was aloft on the massive chariot being pulled half a dozen of those horrendous looking dracoforms and surrounding by another couple dozen of those ice-covered giants. His ram-like horns were guilded with gold certainly, but even it seemed to hang with freezing vapor from his nasal passages.

A massive blast brought his focus back, his detect magic he had going along with the Tactical spells in the sustaining foci were helping to keep him appraised of his relative and immediate vicinity. Kami had accessed Levi's full tactical system and was relaying direct data to his AR=HUD that was hidden beneath his current shapechange. Tailchaser had directly put into the middle of the park (and the invading hordes) a tight cadre of Kodiak-class drones that were, judging by the way they were firing, being fed power directly through microwave transmission or other telecommuted manner.

An earlier attempt to pre-emptively end the conflict by delivering a handful of proto-nuclear weapons through the portal had failed, and at least one of them had detonated somewhere in the northern part of the city. If they were lucky, it was far enough north to be closer to the parks and river. But the loss would still be notable. it also taught them that this invasion force was being backed up by some extremely power sorcery and metamancy.

The arrival of Ghostwalker and Raegus into the fray early on, especially as the first of the ice dragons came through, at least was allowing the defenders a chance. With Godjira's strange arrival erupting from the Mississippi River itself, it was becoming evident that this fight was not going to be over quickly.

But they had to get that Gate closed somehow. But the spell was unreal. It was beyond Woundgivers mana-countering abilities even when augmented by several others of the group. So they had to find the other end of it, the end that was on this side. Find it, and destroy it.