Clint looked at Darcy that night. "Loki kidnaped you."
"Yeah, and I told him off for it." Thor was now choking on his water while Steve was pounding him on the back. "I think he thinks I had something to do with all the magical stuff going on earlier. I tazed him too and told him Thor didn't yelp nearly as loud even though he was drunk when I got him." Thor stood up to stare at her. "What?"
"You faced down my brother on your own?"
"No, Xander showed up during it. Apparently he's got some sort of watch spell on me so he knows if I'm in danger so he showed up with his axe." She shrugged. "We pointed him down at the battle since he kept complaining about soul gems being depleted." Thor stared at her, head tilted just to the side, mouth slightly open. She took a picture with a grin. "If your tongue was hanging out, you'd look like a big dog. A big, shaggy dog." She walked off. "I'm fine. He didn't touch me, try to mind wipe me, or anything else. We really kinda frustrated him. I'm guessing Asgard only has one strong woman and it's Sif, who's not mouthy like I am."
Thor followed her to pick her up by her arms and carry her back to the living room. "Do share with us what happened, Lady Darcy?"
"He grabbed me and brought me to the top of a building near the fighting. I slapped him. I kicked him. I tazed him and sneered at him. Then Xander showed up and reminded him that he had warned your brother not to screw with the crazy ones, the slayers, or a Harris, and said I was close enough to count. We both encouraged him to go help the battle since he was inquiring about the Key of Life and soul gems." Thor's eye had a twitch, it was cute to her. She patted his arm. "Then Xander had a vision about Ragnarok." The eye twitch was worse. "He made notes on my phone for me then I showed them to your brother to prompt him to go be less useless. He showed up down there and I got us home. I also encouraged him to take Rosenburg as a minion. Then he appeared down there to talk to you guys and Dawn."
Thor rubbed his face with both hands and sighed, looking at her. "Did he think you interesting?"
"He thought I might know why the soul gem had been drained. I referred him to people who actually used magic."
"Do you have that vision?" Steve asked. She got into her phone with a frown, finding the notes Xander had made to let him have them. He read it over. "That's going to suck. A lot." He let Thor see it.
"I should go home to see if we can avert it." He handed her phone back. "Dawn shot him. She tried to stab him as well."
"Go girl power," she quipped with a grin.
He smirked at her. "You are quite dangerous, Lady Darcy."
"Yes I fucking well am, Thor. It took you this long to realize that?" He laughed and hugged her then walked off talking to Jane. "I'm going to go check on my baby brother. Visions give him great headaches." She headed back to her apartment. She got to avoid Hill showing up to debrief everyone. Her door had a sign that said 'migraine in progress, I'll kill you if you make it worse' so that meant he had gotten up at least once since she had dragged Xander back to her place. That was sweet.
She walked in and sniffed. Flowers. She checked the two flowers she had, not them. She went to her bedroom, pausing in the doorway. She cleared her throat and the lady with Xander gasped and sat up from kissing him. "I don't care if you molest my little brother but change the sheets and if you get pregnant in here I get to name it." She gave her a pointed look. "Take care of his post vision migraine if that's what he wants. Be good to him or I'll pick up his axe and use it on you."
"Yes, dear. Who're you?"
She smiled. "Darcy Lewis. He's my little bro."
"Awww. I'll take very good care of Xander, Darcy."
"Good. I'll be on the couch." She closed the door and went to watch a movie or two. She detoured when someone knocked very quietly on the door. She stared at Stark. "Xander's headache is being babied, Stark. So what's up? Movie night to relax?"
He hugged her. "For tazing Loki." He walked off.
She grinned, closing the door again to go to her couch. Sometimes she really liked the goofball heros around the tower. Others.... She looked up since that was clearly Jane and Thor. "Damn, I need someone that makes me make those noises." She heard Xander laugh at that comment but that was all right. He needed more happies in his life.
***
Xander was making toast the next morning when Thor stomped in. "I swear I'm going to go Indiana Jones a few tombs," he muttered as he buttered the toast. "That way I don't have to worry about anything anymore."
"There's many of those on many planes," Thor told him. "Can you start coffee? I have been banned."
Xander looked up at him then nodded, starting a pot of coffee. "Plenty strong too."
"Thank you, Xander." He got his own cereal and sat down at the table to eat. "Are you well?"
"Yeah, my head's better. It wasn't the worst post vision headache. I had one that put me into a coma for a few days in Africa." He walked off nibbling his toast. "Darcy should be up soon. She's in the shower. She was just out of bread."
"That's fine." Thor watched him walk off, shaking his head. He knew many warriors who got to the point of hating battles. That one...he had many layers that others didn't see. "He would be welcome on Asgard as a warrior," Thor mumbled around his bite of food. "I should ask if one wants to take him in as a consort. It would do him good." He finished chewing and swallowed, nodding at Stark when he stomped in. "I had Xander start coffee as I'm still banned." He ate another bite of cereal. He really had to bring some home with him. The little, hard marshmallows were brilliant. Most of them would melt in the liquid but not these.
Stark sniffed the coffee then poured himself some to sip. "Strong." He added more sugar and came out to sit at the table. "Is he all right?"
"He's fine. His paramour left about daylight. I heard her repelling down the building and looked in case it was Clint falling again." He ate another bite.
Stark sighed, shaking his head. "I'll figure out what sort of bad girl she is later."
"Sir," the AI said quietly. "The security team caught her escaping and detained her to question her. She's the administrative assistant to someone she called a Lex Luthor sort. She was encouraging Xander to go into such a business for his own wealth."
"He might enjoy it but we'd hate to have another enemy," Stark said dryly. "Thanks." He went back to his coffee, shaking his head. Darcy strolled out dressed well enough and went to make more coffee. "Your brother hike off or is he hiding from his assistant sort he was being babied by?"
"I have no idea what Hillary is doing or where she went, Stark. She did say she'd sneak out so no one could think she was snooping."
"She did, down the side of the building," he said dryly.
"She said her boss was pretty hardcore and someday soon she'd have to take him out for giving her headaches." She shrugged. "She was good to Xander and didn't make hardly any noise I could hear over Jane screaming." She gave Thor a look, getting a grin back while he chewed. She went back to fussing over breakfast, handing him two plates. "Go feed Jane. She wanted to test that one theory today or it'd be at least two months."
"I was hoping to have Jane to myself today since it appears I have to run home."
"Great, then just feed her because you wore the poor woman out, Thor. I'll go baby my little brother." She skipped off.
Thor put his bowl in the sink after a few gulps of the contents. The plates got carried to their suite, and their personal coffee maker got turned on. Jane needed it to function if she wanted to do more than have sex.
Stark shook his head, sending a text to Bruce to let him know that they were without Jane today. He got more coffee and went downstairs to get to his own work. He had plenty he had to do and he was not going to go help Lewis baby her brother. He wasn't that evil. Today.
***
The various people who had just been fighting got called to a meeting. Hill looked at all the gathered people from the gathered teams, some freelancers, a sorcerer, a witch, and a few of the Council people. Xander hadn't wanted to come to avoid stress. The others were driving her nuts and had for years. "I think it's about time we work out how and when to call in certain groups," she announced. "That last battle was the first time we've actually had too many people there, though it did help that we could rotate out tired fighters."
She looked at the witch, which was being cuddled by a plant but shook her head and looked at the others. "We know some of you don't know each other so let me make some introductions. This is the senior slayer. Her name is Buffy, she's an excellent fighter. Their gifts are all extra strength, speed, stamina, and a download of fighting knowledge." Buffy looked and waved. "She's been mystically chosen to handle demon emergencies but they cannot handle human ones. I know that we met the magical contingent the other day." The plant was shifting around. "Dawn, what is that?"
"It's a tiny kraken. It's been trying to pet me since I showed up there to help but now it's just cuddly and taking good care of me. I woke up this morning with it petting my hair." She grinned at the strange looks she was getting. "Doc said that it's fine it's trying to protect me. I even apologized for stomping a few of the poor thing's tentacles. He's just a tiny baby and not trying to eat me."
Doctor Strange shook his head with a sigh. "I figured it was easier not to argue with the kraken."
"Thank you, Doctor Strange," Hill said. "As long as it's not dangerous it's just slightly more weird than the hairless demon cat someone has as a purse pet at Sarah Lawrence." She looked at the others. "I'm sure most of you are aware of the Avengers team." She pointed. "These are the Fantastic Four. No, you're not giving a speech, Richards." He rolled his eyes but turned to look at the baby kraken. "We have various mutants and some freelancers that may or may not be mutants. So can we get together to work out how to call each other when necessary?"
Dawn's phone rang and the kraken patted it until she pulled it out to look at. "Xander said, and I quote, that the next huge problem this city will have is in six hours and it'll be a traveler. He'll be coming in peace but something's going to follow him. It'll take explosives and other problems to get it." She looked up. Then another text message popped up. "The one after that is something to do with Ragnarok and it'll flow down the bridge." She answered and put her phone up. The kraken was petting her hair again.
Buffy looked at her. "That thing's freaky, Dawn. You should let it have a portal or whatever."
"It's a great pet. It doesn't really need a lot of food, just some water, and I don't have to clean up after it. So much better than the ugly dog that your girls in Cleveland adopted." She went back to patting it on the middle of the mass. It nearly purred. She could feel it vibrating. "You purr? That's cute." It snuggled in again. She grinned at the staring heros. "What did you expect from those of us who deal with demons?" A few groaned. "Also, my sister's minions could *really* use dates that can handle having a strong, powerful girlfriend. They're kinda the bitch patrol and it'd cure a lot of that."
"Dawn!"
"And my sister's bitchiness too. She's single because someone staked the last commando she dated for him being a bad influence on the mini slayers."
"Hey!"
Doctor Strange looked at Dawn then at Buffy. "Hopefully you'll find someone nice. Everyone should have someone nice." He looked at the heros. "I'm the Sorcerer Supreme of this dimension. I'm not always local, but if there's a huge magical problem it is my duty to deal with it or to find someone to deal with it. I also have ways of handling magical problematic beings.
"Especially since the coven that would normally do that is presently...clouded by someone." Buffy was glaring at him. He stared back. "I saw worse as a graduate student, Miss Summers. Don't glare at me, I'll change you into something that even your witch can't fix." She slumped down again. He looked at Dawn since she was looking up with a frown. "What?"
"Magic." She pointed. "Lots and lots of magic." She grabbed his hand and put up a shield before the magical burst hit them. "Huh. Well, the coven's mad. Again. Probably in all meanings of the word. Hey, Hill, can you have someone go beat them to death? I'm sure you know some agents who're like Storm Troopers over that way."
"Yes I do and the British government is not happy with the coven anyway, Dawn. Are they still trying?" Dawn nodded. Her little kraken buddy was getting agitated. "Is he going to attack it?"
"No, magic makes him itchy." Strange took the kraken, handing it to Buffy, who shrank away from it but plucked it into the seat next to her.
Everyone looked up at the 'I'm going to kill all your asses' yelled by some woman and then the sound of artillery.
Stark blinked. "That wasn't Lewis or Pepper so I have no idea."
"That was Jane," Dawn said dryly. "Her energy is partially tainted by Asgard's energy signature. Plus I can feel elemental magical energy up there." Stark got up to go talk to her. Dawn took her kraken back and it snuggled in to pat her to check her over then settled in her lap to just cuddle some more. "So, I'm usually at UVA. I'm a magical researcher more than anything and I'm studying various magical artifacts." A few nodded at that. "I can't do traditional magic unless something tragic's going to happen. Possibly with some harder rituals but I can set up protection areas better than most. I had to learn thanks to an Asgardian asshole who wanted to date me and didn't take me stabbing him in the dick as a clue."
Buffy glared at her. "Did I hear about him?"
"No, the last time you heard I was dating you kidnaped me to a room that nearly killed me by stripping my magic away, Buffy. But this isn't the time for family therapy sessions. So talk to the hero guys. That way they know about your girls who're up here and how to help them if they must." Buffy glared at her. Dawn stared back. Buffy growled but gave up and turned to talk to the mutant team leader next to her. She looked up then at Strange. "If I go up there, I'll start to shed magic. Whatever they're doing is leaching it."
"I'll go," he agreed, going up there to stop whatever was going on. Stark was helping Jane now against the witches. "Stop it!" he ordered.
"Shut up, you man," one of the witches sneered.
"I'm the Sorcerer Supreme, witch, I'd be careful of who you address." A few of them snorted but he had ready a capturing spell. They were all shrieking as the spell encased them in a bubble. He looked at Stark and Jane then at the two they were still fighting. "You can join your coven," he offered. One of them shrieked and pulled up an extreme amount of magic. Dawn stomped out and hauled off to hit the witch, knocking her on her butt. The witch released it at her. Dawn glowed. "Dawn?" he asked casually.
"It won't kill me. I'll shed some magic and it'll be fine. Just draw something here." She stared at the witch. "Keep it up, watch me bleed on something." The witch glared and threw more magic at her. Dawn threw a knockout bag full of sleep spell. The witch wailed as she was knocked out. The magic backlashed around Dawn and Jane. Dawn grabbed Jane, pulling her closer. "Stark, move!" she ordered. He got out of the way but was watching. Dawn and Jane got to watch a portal form. "Huh." She reached through to pet the tiara then flicked it with a finger, waking up the spirit. The portal shut and Dawn concentrated, drawing in the magical energy. She sighed. "I can't contain more without going full-on glow."
"I have a capturing crystal at home," Strange said, using the ambient radiation to call it to him. It absorbed the magic until it was nearly gone. He sighed, looking at the ladies. "Dr. Foster, what did you touch that was mystical?" he asked, staring at her.
She glared. "None of your business."
"One of the things like I had to drain partially to get home," Dawn said. "Drop it."
"Oh, damn."
"She's barely got a taint from it, Doc."
"That's good." He walked closer to lay a hand on her forehead, nodding. "We can shield that so no one can feel it and come for you to obtain what you still hold," he told her quietly. "That would make you safer until your betrothed returns."
"Please. I could like that help. Is that like meditation?"
"Yes. To put up shields." Darcy walked over through the magical field. The rest set itself on fire around her, making her swat at it. It flowed off the building and down to the street, putting itself out a few minutes later. "It's nice that you have chaos skills."
"Of course I do, I use it to keep the labs in check," she said sarcastically, staring at Jane then at him. "Still don't have magic though." She grinned. She noticed the thing crawling up there. "Oh, baby, you're going to get hurt," she cooed, picking it up to pet it. "There's gravel and it'll scrape you to hell."
Dawn took her pet. "Thanks, Darcy."
"Welcome, Dawn. It's cute!" She took a few pictures. "Very cute!" It waved a few tentacles at her so she took pictures of that. "That's a great cuddly friend to have and hey, no monster to eat you." She looked at Jane. Then at Strange. "Shielding exercises?"
"Quite," he agreed. "You should as well."
"I do at least once a week. Just in case I get snoopy people since my brother's being plagued by evil witches."
"Good. You should try more often."
"I only get to sleep four or five days a week," she admitted.
"That is bad for you. Trust the doctor," he said dryly. Darcy pointed at Jane. He looked at her. "You do need to stop doing that. It's wearing you out and affecting your health. Unless you wish your betrothed to only have to take care of you and not do anything else?"
"I'm fine!"
"Um-huh. Not exactly. Especially if you don't get that miscarriage taken care of soon. As in today." Her eyes went wide and her hands flew to her stomach. "It may still go, I cannot tell." Jane nodded. Darcy grabbed her and took her off to the nearest ER to have her checked over. Strange sighed, looking at Dawn. "At least it's much more peaceful than when I put it into the closet." He walked off. "We should return before we have to bury your sister."
"Again?" Dawn quipped. "We'd have to stop Willow."
"Don't tempt me," Stark told her with a grin. Dawn smirked at him but followed Strange back inside. Stark looked around then shuddered and went back down there. The slayers would eat Steve alive and he wasn't about to lose him to a slayer dogpile.
***
Jane was finally back in the lab working on her newest bridge attempt. Unfortunately this one wasn't going to be the winning attempt. Not by any means. Darcy started to itch as Jane put in the power supply cord. "Jane," Darcy said. "It's already leaking energy."
"It's fine. It's supposed to so it can set a coordinate." She flapped a hand back at her. "It's not a problem, Darcy, but you can go into the hallway if you want."
"Yeah, I think I do since I feel like I'm going to come out of my skin." She went out there to stare through the glass walls. "Hey, FRIDAY, is Thor here?" she asked quietly.
"No, Miss Lewis. He's at that PR event."
"Can you tell what spectrum that energy is?"
"It's not one that's noted before but I have sensed the same sort of values around your brother."
"Shit, that's magic," she said, going to open the door. "Jane, you're leaking magic. FRIDAY said so. And Thor's not here if something huge comes through."
"We're fine," she said, glaring at her. "You're being sabotaging."
"No, I'm being cautious. You haven't even activated it yet and you're leaking magical energy! Do you want to blow up the tower instead of Tony this time?"
"It's fine! Just go if you're not going to help!" She huffed and got back to it.
Darcy grabbed her phone and bag, going into the hallway to call Dawn. "It's Darcy," she said quietly. "We're about to have a huge magical spike up here." The portal opened and she winced as the energy tentacle came out. "So far we have an electric blue tentacle trying to pet Jane and she can't shut the machine down." She listened. "It was leaking magic as soon as she turned it on, Dawn. How do I stop it?" She listened. "Okay. Can you get him? The last time I heard he was out of the city or something. Thanks." She hung up and dropped her phone into her bag. She hung the bag on a doorhandle and went in there to pull Jane away from the machine.
"Let me go!" Jane shouted, struggling.
"Fuck no! Before you get more than petted!" She shoved her outside the lab and slammed the door, getting under the machine to unplug the stupid thing and pull the power source. It shut down and the tentacle and portal were still there. "Shit!" Jane was ranting at someone in the hallway. Darcy got out and carefully moved away from the energy tentacle. "Hey, monster guy. It's okay, we'll get you home soon." She ran when it reached for her. It vaporized the chair she moved around. Jane was staring in horrified awe. "We need to get it shut down, Jane. Pulling the power didn't work so how do I destabilize it?"
"I don't know! That should've worked! Stark's not here. Strange is out of town or something."
"Dawn said to pull the power supply." She stared at her. "If it leaks before you plug it in, maybe it's a bad idea, Jane." She swatted her on the arm. The tentacle was trying to get to Jane again. Each time Jane moved it switched orientation to be closer to her. "It really loves you more than Thor, Jane." Jane swatted her back, glaring at her. Darcy stared then pointed. "Walk and watch it." She did and then groaned when it followed her. "Oh, fuck me," she said, digging out her phone to take a picture to send to Dawn. Who sent back a 'we have no clue and I talked to the coven, they're not amused at your Jane'. She showed Jane, then looked at the tentacle and its new friend that was splitting off. "Look, it's reproducing itself." Jane whined, slumping down. They were both reaching for her. It was making the safety glass bubble up. "FRIDAY, do you have a protocol to shut the lab in cases like these?"
"I do," she agreed. "We have evacuated the rest of the building but this section," the AI said cheerfully. "I've notified Sir and Lord Thor, ladies. They're both on their way back."
"Maybe they'll go back if I get out of sight range," Jane muttered, walking off.
"Um, Jane, they don't have eyeballs," Darcy said, wincing as the main tentacle ripped through a wall. "It's still following you!" Jane stomped back and the tentacles were back to warping the glass. Darcy sighed. The little tentacle was trying to entice her. "I'm sorry, I only like guys, not tentacles. I don't think I could handle a tentacle lover." It shifted colors and slumped down, hanging limply in the hole. She looked at Jane. "Great. My first intergalactic turndown of touching my boobs, Jane. Are your notes in there?"
"Yes. Of course they are! They're on the board and the table in the file you set up for them." She ran her hands over hair, staring at the tentacles that were eating through the safety glass. Stark came jogging up the hallway. "I don't know what's going on, Tony."
"It was leaking energy as soon as she plugged it in," Darcy told him. "It was making me itch so I came out here and asked FRIDAY if she had felt anything like it before. She identified something like it around my brother. I've pulled the power core." She held it up. "And it's still open. The big tentacle follows Jane and the little one slumped when I told him I couldn't handle a tentacle as a lover." She handed over the power supply module to Stark. "I tried to warn her something was wrong."
"I'm sure you did," Stark agreed. "How do you know it's magic?"
"The only energy sources around my brother would be hellmouth or magical energy."
"Point." He looked at the lab. "Why is there a hole?"
"Jane walked off thinking it'd ignore her if she got out of sight. I pointed out hey, no eyeballs, just about as it went through the wall to follow her. When she was still in there it was petting her hair."
Stark winced. "Sure," he said with a nod, looking at Jane. "The notes?"
"In there," she said with a hand wave. The bigger tentacle's tip made it through the glass wall and wiggled toward her so it could pet her again. She huffed. Tony was looking horrified. Darcy was moaning. "I don't know what's going on."
"The Aether," Thor said as he walked toward them in full armor. "It could be sensing that you had it in you at one time." He poked the tentacle. "Mine!" It curled around Jane's hair to pet her some more. "Get off my woman, tentacle!"
"Hey, monster guy, get off Jane for now. Otherwise it's going to get really nasty and Thor's going to have to use Mew-Mew on you. Got it?" Darcy ordered. It backed off some, just rubbing Jane's back now. She looked at Thor. "They're at least slightly sentient because the little one that split off that one got all dejected when I told it no because it was trying to entice me to be petted."
Thor looked at the tiny one then at her. He sighed, shaking his head. "Charming," he said in another language. He moved Jane. The tentacle tried to follow. He blocked it with his hammer, which made the tentacle squeal and back off a few feet. "Can we cut power to it?" Tony held up the power supply. "Oh, dear."
Dawn appeared with her baby kraken cuddling around her neck and shoulder. It got all wavy tentacled at the bigger ones, reaching over to pat it. It singed a few of the suckers but it was happy to meet the big tentacle. That one wasn't interested in Dawn but the baby energy tentacle came over to entice Dawn to be petted. She looked at Stark. "If you throw energy into a portal, you create a black hole. We learned that lesson the hard way many years ago." She shrugged. "It's definitely chaos magic and it's definitely out of whack because it's going to a null space area." Thor stared at her. "Normal space feels different from this stuff." She petted her baby kraken. "It is drawn to energy and magical resonance."
"Which is why one tried to pet me?" Darcy guessed.
"Yup. You carry just enough to register as having it. Jane has a lot more so they like her more." She looked at Jane. "What were you setting the machine to do?"
"To open a small portal onto the Bifrost. I've been working to completely repair the Bifrost."
"Okay," Dawn agreed with a nod. "That's not the Einstein-Rosen bridge though." Jane glared. "Seriously. The Bifrost is a hugely different construction. Yeah, your bridge theory might merge with it but it'd lay on top of it and possibly divert again to go somewhere else. Going to Asgard would take a keyed bridge, with anchors at both ends. It's got a keystone. It's bendable like a rainbow, hence the name, and it's got a serious energy drain into it through the keystone. There's actually three really good magical dissertations written on it, all from off world sources. The coven has a copy of one in Latin. The other two I've seen under glass but not near here." Jane slumped, staring at her. The tentacle was petting her again. "From what I can tell, your portal opened into a null space area. It's like the portion between atoms and these are generally tiny energy suckers. I've seen something like them on the astral plane."
Jane considered it. "That's going to suck. How do we stop it?"
"If pulling the power didn't, I don't know how you opened up a space between atoms and then enlarged it, Jane. I can tell what it is, not how you did it. I'm still in my undergrad of studying artifacts. This is doctoral work."
"Oh, crap." She looked at her tentacle friend then at her ugly little machine, cobbled together so it wasn't pretty but it was effective.
"Is this like the Pym particles?" Darcy asked.
"Sorta but they do it differently from what I understand," Dawn told her. "You'd have to ask Pym that. I've barely read a paper of his to see if it'd help with an energy cube I got handed by a professor who swore up and down it was trying to take her over."
"I can call him," Stark said. "Is there a magical way to close it?"
"Yes, probably. Not sure how. I'm not strong in that gift, Mr. Stark. That's going to require Stephen or one of his people. And the last I heard he was off plane."
"Shit," Stark muttered. "So what do we do?"
"We can hope it's not a truly self sustaining portal, which means it'll run out of energy and cut itself off somehow. Which could yield a small explosion when the molecules collapse. That happens a lot with portals. If it's generating their own energy.... You'll need higher help. Maybe Thor knows a mage who might know?" She looked at him. So did the others.
"I know of no one who deals with portals beyond Heimdall and I doubt he would realize how to close it as he guards the bridge," Thor admitted. "I can call upon him to ask." He walked off, going to the roof to call out for him. His answer was Heimdall laughing as he appeared but shaking his head. "Do we have anyone who could assist her with that?"
"No. I have already asked, Thor. They all find it amusing she opened a portal to the astral plane instead. It shows promise but chaotic intent. A few now question her sanity. Loki may be able to degrade the power faster by sucking it off but we have no idea."
"Thank thee. Is he around?"
"Tied up," Heimdall admitted. "I'll see if I can get him down here." He walked back up the bridge and came back a bit later with Loki. "Part of his sentence is to help you with this problem before your betrothed is thoroughly corrupted by the energies of her tentacle friend." He smirked a tiny bit then went back up the bridge.
Thor looked at Loki. "Jane had an accident while trying to make a portal to connect to the bridge." He walked him off, taking off his cuffs on the way.
Loki walked up the hall grimacing. "Begone!" he bellowed, sending magic at the tentacles he could see. They fled. He looked at the portal then at Jane. "Was that your intent?"
"NO!"
"Then what were you trying to do?"
"I was trying to create a way onto the bridge. Or to create a new bridge."
Loki felt like ramming his head into a wall. "You cannot safely build one structure on top of another one, Doctor Foster," he said bluntly, glaring at her. "It is not sound building." She groaned. "As the bridge was broken but not destroyed, you cannot lay one on top of the other and expect it to be safe to use. It might send you past Asgard and into space itself." He walked into the lab and sucked energy out of the portal, shrinking it at least. "Girl!" he called.
"There's three of us out here," Darcy complained. "And we all have names." Loki glared at her. "Me, Dawn, or Jane?"
"Not you. The other one, the shiny one." Dawn strolled in, letting Darcy have her pet. He looked at it then at her. "Why?" he asked her, looking confused.
"It's very loving and it's a great friend to have. It's been my shoulder companion since the battle." She lifted a hand. "I don't do traditional magic."
"I can tell why," he said dryly. "You're going to be recharged."
"Use it to recharge your soul gem."
"Point, but we'd still need a funnel for it." Dawn waved and the gem appeared in her hand. "Good." He took that hand to hold around the gem and pulled the magic from the portal. It was tiring but had to be done. Dawn naturally channeled it into the stone. Finally the portal was barely open and he backed up, looking shaky and sweaty. "I cannot pull more," he said quietly.
She nodded. "We might be able to pop it but it'll create a small explosion." She looked back. "Darcy, I need Xander's blessed dagger." She texted Xander and he appeared thanks to a coven member. "Someone opened it by accident trying to build an energy bridge." The witch moaned but Dawn took the dagger to pop the portal carefully. It did explode but they had used the energy to shield around themselves. The lab was a mess though.
She sighed, walking off. Loki made a grab for the gem. She just stared at him. "No. Bad mage, sit in the corner." She went to hand it to Xander, who held it up to look at then nodded so he and the witch could leave. "He'll make sure it's safely hidden." She took her tentacle friend back, petting it. "See, I'm okay." It petted her hair down, slithering up to sit on her head and pet her all over.
Loki walked out shaking his head. "What interesting pets you keep, chit."
She grinned. "Doctor Strange had it in a closet. It was lonely. Plus it may help later so no one comes after my bones in a millennium." She grinned. Darcy shuddered. "He told you?"
"No, saw it in a dream."
"Oh. Well....that's weird," Dawn said, looking at her. Darcy shrugged. "That's fine though. Just don't tell." They hugged. "Hey, Stark, can I get an excused absence for history class?"
"Yeah, sure, Dawn." He had his AI type one up and signed it, handing it to her. The coven member got her back to her dorm room, staying far away from the tiny kraken. He looked at Darcy. "Why?"
"Long story, Stark." She looked at Loki. "Thank you for the help."
"Thank you," Jane agreed, looking at the mess. "I'll have to figure out why it did that and correct it."
Loki looked at Thor. "Perhaps you should wear her mind out in better ways, Thor. It might save humanity." Jane glared at him. He stared at her. "It was growing." He walked off shaking his head and found himself suspended from the ceiling in chains while hanging upside down. "I was going to refresh myself," he called, looking amused. "May I not do that? Me having to be beside Thor all the time means that I would have to intrude on his life with his betrothed. I know many would like that but you're the same ones that thought Thor would take me in hand and many other ways." They let him go. He huffed as he straightened himself out, staring at Thor. "By the way, the Senior Council believes humans are beneath us and you were meant to be my betrothed. I've cursed the whole group of them for you."
Thor patted him on the arm. "Thank you for that service, Loki. It means I do not have to smite them." Tony was moaning and shaking his head.
"They'd seriously rather you have incest than date me?" Jane demanded, looking at Loki, who smirked and nodded. "Why?"
"You humans have short life spans," he said bluntly. "And trouble bearing young. Which he'll need before you die of old age."
"Is that why she miscarried?" Darcy asked.
Loki blinked then stared at her then at Jane's stomach. "I can sense a spell on her, yes. Good thinking, chit."
"My name is Darcy, use it," she said firmly. "Not chit or any other pet name, oh great greasy one." She looked at Jane. "Maybe we can get the magic removed?" she asked Thor and Jane.
"Aye, there's many ways," Thor agreed, looking at her, getting a nod back. "Though I have not suggested a child as of yet."
Jane patted him on the arm. "I'm not sure what to do about that yet, Thor." He hugged her, walking her off. She sighed. "I'll...clean up the mess tomorrow, once we make sure it's fully closed," she called back.
"That's fine," Darcy called with a wave and a grin. She stared at Loki once they were gone. "Nice job of diverting him so he's super protective of her," she said quietly, smirking at him. "I'm pretty damn sure she'll get pregnant very soon." Loki smirked back and disappeared but got forced back in chains again. "I guess you can sit in the bathroom for now. At least it's humane and you'll have water. We can leave you food." She pushed the floating ball of person off to a bathroom and left him in there with a glass for water from the sink and handing him a few boxes of food he could eat. Then she closed the door and put a note on it that Loki was in there. She went back to start the lab clean up process. Tony was still thumping his head into a wall. She patted him on the shoulder. "At least you and Bruce didn't have any tentacle friends, Stark. Can't you just see Hulk playing with a tentacle friend?"
He glared at her. "You're going evil."
She grinned. "It's lack of free time." She went in to start the clean up but he hauled her out of the lab. "I need to start that."
"We need to scan it to make sure it's safe, Lewis. Go have free time. Get less evil." She skipped off looking happier. Stark sighed and called Bruce to come help. On the way back, Bruce got to watch the film of what happened. He was already creeped out when he showed up and made sure there were no more tentacles. "Thor's taking the magic off Jane so she can get pregnant again soon. Loki's trapped in a bathroom. Lewis got sent to her apartment since she was going to start the clean up before we scanned it. And the tentacles are finally gone."
Bruce Banner looked in there then at him. "I'm glad I didn't see the tentacles. They might've liked me."
"I'm pretty sure they would've loved both of you, Bruce. Get the energy sensors?" He nodded, going to do that while Tony had a mini fit before they got to work. That way he was in private. No one had to know he was having a psychotic breakdown over tentacles.
***
When Dr. Strange got out of his trance state and woke back up to that world, he found a folded report waiting on his lap. He opened it, staring at the note about what had happened and how they had solved it, then the quip at the bottom of 'don't ask what the stone can do for you, ask what you can do for the stone' after Dawn's name. He reread it then sighed. "I'll talk with her in the morning," he decided. He got up and went to get dinner and a drink. A large drink.
He had seen those tentacles before. They hadn't been that friendly to him but he wasn't a female and hadn't freed them from their imprisonment. He would not even wonder what had happened to the stone they had used. Wondering about them brought their attention and higher beings paid attention to what the stones were paying attention to. He didn't need another attack tonight.
***
Darcy looked around the corner of the sheet hanging over the door of Jane's lab, staring at the men in suits in there. "Who in the hell are you?" she asked impolitely.
"Ma'am, you can't be here."
"I work in this lab." She walked into view. "I suggest you get out of Jane's work. Now. Before I call Stark Security."
The agent smirking at her shook his head. "They have to let us." He held up a paper. "We have a warrant."
"FRIDAY, is Hill coming?" Darcy asked.
"Yes, Miss Lewis. She is coming and she's not pleased."
"I hope at them." She looked up the hall at the sound of boots, nodding at the security team around Hill. "Thugs in suits going through Jane's work?"
"Thugs in suits without a valid warrant. I talked to their higher ups and confiscated the things they tried to take out of the building," Hill said, stepping into view behind Darcy. "You're well out of lines."
"Agent Hill," the lead agent sneered. "Nice to see how far the great and mighty have fallen."
Darcy looked at Hill. "I'm going to turn into a Harris in a moment. Would you like him first?"
"He's not worth the sweat or the cost of the bullet," Maria Hill said with a slight shrug.
"Good." The agents were still sneering. Darcy reached in and hit something on the wall. The machine from last night was still together and she had noticed it was back together because it was partially on. The machine powered up and the tentacle buddies came out to test these new friends. "Tentacle guys, they're evil. They're trying to hurt Jane and her work. She's the one that made the portal." The tentacles dragged their new helpers with them. "Bye, dickweeds," she said with a smile and a wave. "Have fun."
Hill waited until it the portal closed to shudder. "That's evil, Darcy."
She grinned. "I told you I was going to be a Harris for a few minutes." She looked at the man walking up the hallway. "Hey." She smiled and waved.
"Did you reactivate the portal?" Banner demanded.
"Yeah, there were people in here pawing and trying to confiscate Jane's work. I totally turned into my big brother. He'd be so proud of me." She walked off. "I'm going to start coffee in the break room," she called. A few other science team members followed her to get some. Jane wandered in looking exhausted. "Jane, coffee?"
"Please," she begged. She got a cup and held it up with a grin. Darcy poured her some then the others, starting a second then a third pot. They all liked her coffee. Jane hummed as she walked off. She came back. "What's with the sheets in my lab?"
"There were agents. The tentacle friends really liked them, Jane." She grinned. "They were trying to confiscate your work."
Jane stared at her then got more coffee and walked off to find Tony or Bruce. They were in charge in the science department. She ran into Bruce. "Who was in my lab?" she demanded, sipping her coffee.
"Hill knew them. She sneered about them being pathetic. If they come back out of the portal we'd all be shocked and horrified." He stared at her. "They were trying to confiscate your work."
"I doubt they can get it to work," she said dryly. "I'm the one who's making it up as I go along and even I can't get it to always work." She went back to check on her things. The lab was a wreck but the robots had at least scrubbed off any slime. They had pushed all the papers into a pile on the floor. Someone had tried to erase her white board too. She found a camera on the floor and looked at the pictures, putting back up her math and getting things set back up. Darcy came in to re-sort things and make it all nicer again. The sheets got taken down and thrown into the hallway for now. Jane turned and found a man wearing a really weird outfit and a cape. "You're obviously not an agent."
"I'm the Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Foster. We met the other day. I was drawn here due to a surge in mystical energy." Darcy pointed at the machine. He stared at it. "Is that what Dawn left me a note about solving?"
"Probably," Darcy agreed, smiling at him. "I turned it back on due to the agents in here trying to grab Jane's research. The tentacles were happy to make new friends."
"That's bordering on evil, Miss Lewis," the sorcerer said patiently.
"It's that or they could've tried to open their own bridge," Darcy quipped. "Going to who knows where and only the Goddess might know what might come through."
He tipped his head. "Good point, still borderline unethical." He gave her a pointed look. "I don't need more work to retrieve them."
"I can restart it so they can spit them back out," Jane said. "Though Loki got the original portal stopped. I'm guessing he's probably still locked in a bathroom."
"I gave him a cup for water and food," Darcy said. "It's a bathroom so he's got water and facilities." She looked at the sorcerer again. "If you want, we can get stuff out of the way so they can come back if they want to."
"While I'd like to examine the portal itself, I do believe it should be done somewhere safer than downtown Manhattan," he complained.
"We've had the Bifrost land on top of the tower a few times," Jane said.
"That's not in here. Which has walls and windows, Dr. Foster. Wouldn't it be better to place the experiments in a more open environment? I'm sure Stark has a spare garage somewhere."
"All my notes are here and all the tools," Jane said.
"And the duct tape," Darcy quipped. "It's surprisingly handy around the labs."
Doctor Strange looked at her. "We had medical glue at times. It's very handy as well." He looked at Jane. "Please do not use the portal for a bit and do so in a more open area for your own safety? Retrieving either of you would probably take a great deal of time and energy. And would annoy your betrothed, Dr. Foster. We don't need to start a war with Asgard."
"I guess I can move it to a more open area," she said. "But that would put it closer to under the building and it might collapse the tower on top of us."
"You could use the roof," he offered. "Like the other bridge."
"True, but the weather's been too nasty. I was originally going to." He nodded. "You're a scientist?"
He smiled. "I used to be a surgeon, Dr. Foster. I know many like Stark. I used to be one of them actually."
"I'm sorry. I heard about your hands," Jane said, patting him on the arm. "I can move it and try to make it safer so you don't have to get called to save us. Or we don't have to get Loki from the bathroom."
"He's in the bathroom?"
"It was the most humane place we could put him last night since he ended up mystically tied up and hanging from the ceiling," Darcy said. "I gave him some food and a glass for water. It's humane."
"It is, but probably not amusing him. It does give him time to think up evil plans for it."
She grinned. "Thor will go talk to him later probably."
"Probably," Dr. Strange agreed, looking back as Stark stomped in. "Stark."
"Strange." He looked at Darcy. "You turned it back on?" he demanded.
"Yeah. Because there were people in here who were trying to take Jane's work to open their own. Did you want to fight whatever came through this time?"
"No," he said. "That's evil, Lewis."
She blew a kiss. "I warned Hill I was going to turn into my brother." Jane snorted her coffee, shaking her head. "It didn't hurt anyone else. One of them sneered at Hill anyway." She grinned. "Fuck them because I don't want to have to sneak in to break their machines when they do something like open that portal."
"They'd send the spysassins," Stark said.
"At least one of them used to be SHIELD, both of the spies are too well known, and it'd take weeks to teach them how to break the machines the right way," Darcy said. "Because if you blow them up and they've brought something here, it's stuck. Would you want that if you got pulled to another realm or planet?"
"No," he admitted, shaking his head. "I wouldn't. Don't do it again. It was dangerous."
"Yup, I realized that yesterday," she said dryly. She sipped her coffee, smiling at the geek in the doorway. "What's up, Abrahims?"
"Darcy, the machine's stuck again. Can you go kick it?"
"Sure." She got up, going to fix the snack machine again. That pre-doc intern got her snack and went back to her lab. "Eat lunch," she called after her. "If you pass out I'm going to have to stalk you to do finger sticks again."
"I'm trying, Darcy."
"Good." She went back to her office, smiling at Stark, who was giving her an odd look. "She's diabetic, Stark."
"Oh! Okay. I didn't know that."
"I found her passed out because she pulled a Jane. We had a long talk about how to help her." She sat down and put her ankles up. "Sorry, swelling this morning for some reason."
Dr. Strange looked at Stark. "Is there somewhere safer she can experiment with portals and her bridge?"
"I'd like to move it to the roof but it's really nasty out for the last week," Jane said.
"And pigeon poop would totally ruin some things," Darcy agreed. "Probably at the wrong moment."
Stark looked at her then at Jane. "We can figure that out, Jane." Jane grinned. He looked at Strange. "Can you get those idiots out of there?"
"If she wants to reopen the portal we can see if they want to crawl out," Strange admitted. "Unless they're gifted somehow, calling psychically would probably only draw more tentacles."
"Do you know anything about them?" He pointed at the hole in the window. "One of them did that. They seemed at least a bit sentient."
"One pouted when I turned him down," Darcy said. "Slumped, changed color a bit."
Strange looked at her then at Jane. "One of them was petting me until Thor made it stop," Jane said. "It followed me by going through the wall and the window," she said with a point at them.
Strange sighed, shaking his head. "I have seen them on the astral plane but they never approached me for more than trying to annoy me. I can meditate to reach them if possible to see if they want to come home. They may be satisfied there. The astral plane is calming and pretty." He settled on a chair and concentrated, sending himself out of his body. He noticed the shadow of energy and groaned. He'd talk to Dawn later. He went onto the astral plane, going through the remnants of the portal.
What he saw was not amusing, or pleasing, or happy making for those agents, but the tentacles were definitely enjoying their new friends. He came back, looking at the ladies. "They're not happy with their new tentacle duties. The portal left remnants of itself. There's all sorts of shadows of energy we should have cleaned out before someone draws that to them to use for the wrong things. Or somehow it gets sucked into Darcy or her brother by accident and turns on their magical gifts."
"Like smudging?" Darcy asked. "I know theoretically how to do that."
"That may help," he agreed, looking at Jane. "I'll have a contact get in touch with your friend." He looked at Darcy then at Jane. "The stone they used?"
"Went with Xander," Darcy quipped with a grin.
He nodded. "He probably knows how to hide them."
"And has hidden at least one other one," Darcy agreed.
"Excellent. Then hopefully we'll be able to protect them." Darcy handed him her phone with that vision pulled up. He read it, grimacing. "I hope we can protect them all then." He handed back the phone. "Let me know if anything more develops on that front." He stood up. "I'll be around for a few more weeks cleaning up the mess those aliens created. Call upon me if you need my services." He left, going home to call on Dawn. Clearly he needed a better report from her. He did a summoning of her, making her call him. It was charming how that worked around her.
"Dawn, what happened when you closed that portal most of the way?" he asked politely. She told him. "You left an energy resonance. I'll have it cleaned," he assured her when she complained about that problem. "We can teach you how to not leave one." He listened to her chat about the artifact that had just literally appeared in front of her. "Why?" he asked. He groaned. "Will it open? Yes, you can bring it up here." He hung up when she did and she appeared a few minutes later. She put the artifact down and almost immediately the portal opened. A large talking tree fell out.
Dawn helped him up, smiling at him. "Welcome to earth. Where are you supposed to be so we can get you back there?"
"I am Groot," he said. He looked around. "Groot."
"Hi, Groot." She smiled at him. "I'm going to test the energy around you. It won't hurt." She did that and sighed. "I know where you should be. Damn those idiots." Strange was staring at her until she looked at him. "It's where I had to get back from the last time so ended up on Asgard." She patted Groot on the arm then got him some water to soak up somehow. He smiled and sipped, sitting on the floor. "I can see if I can scry or something."
"Please. Then come tell me about that trip?"
She grinned. "It's not like it was fascinating. The coven decided I needed protecting so sent me somewhere supposedly safe, right into the middle of a battlefield with blue people." She walked off. "Got that silver bowl still?"
"It's probably in the kitchen, where it usually is. I have a marble pool."
"I get funny images from marble and usually pick up raunchy cable channels instead."
"Why?" he asked. She confused him greatly.
She came back with the silver bowl and his helper. "Who knows. Probably where they partially made me of Buffy." She poured water into the bowl and concentrated, breathing through her nose while she thought, her face scrunching up. "There you are," she said, making someone jump. That woman stared at her oddly. "Hi again. Do you know a big guy named Groot?" She nodded slowly. "He's here on earth. A portal pulled him. I'll try to get him back there but it might be days. Does he have any special needs we need to know about?"
She shook her head, looking at the others. The talking racoon walked into view. "How did he get there?" Dawn got handed the artifact to hold into view. "Oh, that thing. Yeah, we were rescuing it. We thought there was a stone."
"No, it holds a portal. It yanked him down here. The stupid thing landed in front of me. Does he need special food, fertilizer, water filtering or chemicals? It'll probably take me at least a few days to gather energy."
"No, he just needs some sunlight and water usually," another male voice said. He leaned into view. "How are you doing that?"
She grinned. "Magic. It's like the Force but I'm better than any jedi because I don't wear robes."
"That's cute," he said dryly. "How long?"
"Days probably."
"Okay. Give us a warning?"
"If I can."
"Cool. Thanks." He waved and walked off groaning and muttering.
Dawn looked at the racoon. "Some day I'm going to introduce him to those unicorn warriors I met on another trip." The fuzzy one walked off groaning as well. "I'll take good care of Groot for you." She let the magic go and sighed, looking at Strange, who was shaking his head. "Easy undo command?"
"Not that I can tell. There's some ancient style writing on an edge."
Dawn took it to squint at in the light. "Open other end, this end kills you." She flipped it over to look inside the box. "Good to know. Doesn't look like a puzzle box that'll give out Pinhead." She put it onto the desk. Groot took it to play with. "Just don't set it off again, big guy." She let him have the bowl of water. He drank it all down and burped.
"Unicorn warriors?" he asked impatiently.
"Yeah, and they were snotty like debutante cheerleaders. Since I wasn't horned, hooved, or furry I was beneath all them. And then I changed their coats to sheep fur." She grinned. "The jackasses pulled me, I didn't volunteer to go. Not like I wanted to end up in a shallow end of their gene pool."
"How far away are they?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
She shrugged. "Long trip, I ended up knocked out. They got together to summon a mystical warrior who could defeat their enemy for good. I nearly let her win but she was too evil and a really horrible dresser. I made her give up and go find religion and the warriors were happy but pissy about having summoned a human. It really did come down to me looking at them and telling them that if they couldn't beat that one enemy they certainly weren't warriors and were really fucking pathetic overall. They needed to spend more time working out as warriors and less time being snotty, catty, and fashionable." She waved a hand, making him shake his head and sigh. She grinned. "If one shows up here, I'm putting her and my sister in a room together."
"I know some who would enjoy seeing such," he admitted, sighing at the end again.
She grinned. "Are you deflating?"
"Quite." She grinned, taking Groot with her back to the apartment she had off campus. Thankfully she wasn't in a dorm this semester. They might freak out at a giant talking tree.
Strange went to have dinner and meditate to ease his headache. Dawn did give him such headaches at times. It was how perky she was about weird things.
***
Buffy showed up at Dawn's apartment a few days later and stared at the being in her kitchen with one paw in the dish sink. She looked at her sister. "What is that?"
"He's Groot. He got pulled here thanks to a mystical artifact. It'll take me a few more days to reverse it so he can get home. He's from where the coven sent me to supposedly make me safer by sending me to the middle of a huge battle."
Buffy grimaced. "They have problems."
"They need to solve their own problems and not make them mine," Dawn shot back. "Because I'm really tired of it."
"No little demonic plant?" She pointed. Her baby kraken was petting Groot's branches. "Still weird, Dawn." She sighed, looking at her. "When are you coming home?"
"That's not home so never since home is in the middle of the hellmouth's seal." She stared at her. "Some day I'll make my own home but until then I'm willing to suffice by living while studying."
Buffy glared at her. "It is home, Dawn. We live in Cleveland."
"You live in Cleveland. I live in Virginia for another semester and then I'm going to Spain to do my masters." She grinned. "I got accepted into an excellent artifact program. One of the top three in the world."
"Spain?" she demanded. "You're going to Spain!"
"It was there or Egypt," she shot back with a grin. "I'd hate living in the desert. Way too hot and not on a beach."
"There's not one in the US?" she demanded.
"China. They hate magic though so it wasn't on my list. The other one is in Russia." Buffy glared. She shrugged. "It's not my fault that's where the programs are."
"You can't leave the country."
"I'm a grown woman, Buffy. If I want to leave the country I'll damn well make flight reservations and ship stuff ahead." She stared at her. "Sorry but I'm not a child and I can do what I want with my life. That's called being an adult."
"You are not! You're nineteen!"
"Well, duh, that does mean I'm an adult," she shot back. "An adult is eighteen, Buffy." Buffy glared. She shrugged. "That's the law."
"You are not allowed to leave the country."
Dawn snorted. "Keep it up, watch me do my last semester over there too." Buffy glared harder. Dawn got some tea bags down and made some tea. "Groot, need anything?"
"I am Groot," he said, staring down at her.
She did a telling spell on him and frowned. "You need more sunlight. We'll deal with that later." He patted her. "Just rest for now, Groot." She patted him then fixed her tea. She looked at her sister. "Anything else you want to talk about?" She took a sip. One of the branches tasted the tea and made Groot smile. She made him the rest of the pot of water into tea for him and he grinned, sucking that up.
Buffy glared at her then at Groot. "Why are you hanging out with demons?"
"He's an alien, not a demon. And he's the hero of an intergalactic war." She sipped her cup of tea, staring at her sister. "I was there and helped too. He was really impressive."
Buffy gaped then huffed. "Whatever. You still can't go to Spain."
"Not your choice."
"Mom would be mad."
"Mom would be tickled pink I'm going to a place that has tons of smart people and beaches that they hang out on." She smirked a tiny bit. "That's where she picked up your father after all." Buffy spluttered. "Mom told me she met him in Seville and they ended up on the beach that night getting jiggy and funky." She took another sip while Buffy choked. "She didn't tell you that?"
"No!" She stared at her. "Eww!"
"Not my fault." She shrugged, walking around her sister to go sit down with her textbooks. "I've got class in an hour. Did you want to have lunch after I have senior english lit?"
"Blow it off."
"Can't. He's the sort of teacher who bases your grades on being there. You can ace everything but if you miss twice you flunk anyway."
"So?"
"I have to keep my grades up or I'll have to retake the class. Probably in Spain." She smiled. "Anything else you wanted to talk about?"
"You are coming home right now, Dawn Summers. Or else I'll make you!"
"Yeah, not." Dawn looked up at her. "Don't delude yourself, Buffy. You can't do a damn thing to me that I can't stop you from doing."
"I can have you put into a mental hole," she said smugly. "You're shacking up with a demon."
"He's an alien. Not a demon."
"Your plant," she said smugly.
"It's highly protective. And the local PD thinks it's great since it stopped some other girl's date from hurting her by pouncing them." She stared at her sister. "There's nothing you can do to prove that I'm unfit, even if a quiet weekend might be nice now and then."
"This state says knowing about magic is enough," Buffy said smugly, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yeah but with you as my sister, I get past that."
"I can disavow you."
"Then you'd have no right to try to put me away," she shot back smugly. "Anything else, Buffy? Before I banish you to Groot's former spot?" Buffy glared and tried to grab Dawn's hair but Groot stopped her and pushed her against a wall, staring at her. "Thanks, Groot, babe." She stood up, walking over and picking up her sister's wrist to hit the button on her bracelet that was her emergency send-home button. Buffy left.
Dawn looked up at Groot. "She seriously needs help but sending her to the afterlife to have our mother kick her ass isn't really ethical of me." She went back to her studying but put the books into her bag. "C'mon, we're going to the park." Her little kraken went to hide under the couch. He didn't like sunlight. Groot followed her out, nearly skipping on the way. Her neighbors just waved at them. They were used to weird things. "My sister has been banished again," she called as she walked past the manager's doorway.
"You two have fun," the manager called. "If she breaks in again I'll have her arrested."
"Thanks." She got Groot and her to the nearby dog park to sit and watch the dogs play. Groot went to play with a few of them, making Dawn smile. He was so innocent sometimes.
***
Darcy looked up as Dawn appeared with her buddy. "Hey, you must be Groot."
"I am Groot," he said, staring at her. He touched her hair, making her smile.
"I need someone to guard me while I send him home. Everyone else is busy or evil."
"Sure, I can do that. What if Xander shows up?"
"He might but it'd throw the spell off so I warned him not to show up for a few hours." She shrugged. "Are you sure, Darcy?"
"Yeah. Jane's..." She looked at the feet sticking out from under a machine. "Hey, Jane, want to talk to our new alien friend before Dawn sends him back?" Jane wiggled out and came to come talk to Groot, who wasn't very talkative but he seemed very nice and interesting. Thor came in to greet the alien.
"I'm working on sending him home tonight without having to use the artifact," Dawn told Thor, who nodded. "I'm borrowing Darcy as a guardian."
"That's fine," Thor agreed. "I'm sure you have experience with that."
"Mostly with getting home," Dawn admitted but grinned. "My sister's a bitch." She took Darcy and Groot up to her apartment to set it up. Darcy's apartment wasn't filled with things so she had a good working area to lay down the tape to form the figures she'd need. She settled Groot with her in the circle and finished it off then started the moving spell. Nothing. Absolutely no magic. "Okay, we'll do this the easy way."
She sighed, looking at him. "I have to use the artifact but I'll hand you over personally, big guy." She hugged him and used the artifact to suck him into then used the spell to open a portal. She walked over and sneered at someone. "Shut up." She handed over the cube, putting the head guy's hands around it.
"Hold onto that." She opened it and Groot came out, hugging her. She hugged back. "There you go, big guy. Me and the baby kraken will miss you. Have fun with the bad guy." She kissed him on the cheek. "Peter, please lock that stupid cube up." She walked off. One of the bad guys tried to pounce her so she summoned the warrior princesses of unicorndom. "Here, pay me back for saving your horns." She went back to her portal and headed home. "There, he's home." She picked up her baby kraken to cuddle. "I know you'll miss him but maybe we'll find another plant demon soon, baby." She settled in to talk with Darcy, and Xander when he showed up. "I'm sure Peter would say hi if he wasn't complaining about the unicorn warrior princesses."
Xander shook his head quickly. "No. I don't want to know. Otherwise I might send some of the slayers there. They love ponies. Warrior unicorns? They'd *adore* that. Unfortunately we'd probably get attacked while they were gone."
"Probably," Dawn agreed. "Pity." They shared a look. "It's a mean idea."
"I'll make the list of those who could go," Xander quipped, settling in to do that. The baby kraken shifted over to pet him too. He looked at it. "I've seen bigger versions of you but they were mean. It's good that you're so protective of Dawn, little one." He petted the top of it. "Go back to petting your mistress." It flowed back to tease Dawn's hair. Dawn grinned at him. "I'm so sending him with you to the afterlife. He can guard you."
"I figured he could." She got comfortable, petting her little kraken while they talked.
Darcy looked at her. "Your sister show up?"
"Yeah. And threw a hissy that I'm going to Spain for my masters." She grinned. "She threatened to have me put in psych. I could use the vacation but not that much."
Xander shook his head with a sigh, putting Buffy's name at the top of the list. She could really use the petting vacation. Maybe some other warriors would help her see sense and reality. Darcy got up to get them drinks and brought them back. Including a tiny bowl of water for the kraken. He enjoyed that, flowing down to cover it and slurp it up. Dawn added some of her tea and it liked that too.
Thor and Jane walked in. Jane stared at the baby kraken but it ended up climbing up her to cuddle so she settled in to pet it while Thor hovered protectively next to her. A few of the tentacles reached over to play with Thor's longer hair but he put up with it. It was a mostly harmless little plant.
***
Dawn looked up from her studying in the student center, nodding at a security guard stomping her way. "What?"
"Is that a demon?" he demanded, pointing at the kraken that had snuck into her backpack.
"No, it's a kraken, which means it's a plant. A sentient plant but a very protective one." She smiled a tiny bit to look less mean. "It protects me from idiots who my sister sends to try to kill me or kidnap me. Which are usually demons." She pointed at one that was whimpering in the corner. "My sister's a crackhead idea away from me having her banished to another planet."
"Who the fuck are you?" he demanded.
She smiled. "Dawn Summers." He looked her up in his handheld unit, then grimaced. "Yeah, so she's being a dumb bitch again. The hairdye has clearly won that battle." She packed up things. "Beyond that, he's weird but nice and protective. I only have one teacher that hates him and he snuck into my backpack today because he didn't want to sit at home for a few hours. It's my long day." She let her little buddy sit on her shoulder after she put on her backpack. He held it nicely in place as well as petted over her hair. "You have a great day and that demon really needs to go home before I come over there," she said, glaring at it. It shrieked and hid itself but disappeared. She smiled at the guard. "Anything else?"
"You can't bring that thing on campus."
"There's no rule saying I can't have my pet on campus, sir. I've read the book and asked your boss just in case. They all like him because he's very protective. It means that agents haven't tried to snatch me in three days." She walked around him. "Have a better day." She looked at her shoulder, shrugging some. "I don't know either." He purred as he petted her. "You're a great little friend." She patted him on her way to class.
The teacher grimaced. "Must you bring that thing in here?" she demanded.
"He snuck into my backpack," she said. "And kept me from being killed by a demon my sister sent."
"Wonderful. Can he sit in your backpack again?"
"Of course." She settled in and let him slide down her to her backpack and settle in there to be a backpack monster. "No climbing out to pet Penny today," she reminded him. "You freaked her out last time because she thought you were hitting on her because she thinks she's a princess." The tentacles all waved and sucked on the wet sponge she had in there. It could open the small container she had put it in and was happily sucking up all the water so it didn't drip. Dawn moved her books and papers out for it. That made it happier. She grinned at the teacher. "He has a damp sponge."
"That's being a good pet parent I suppose," she said, trying not to smile. "It is adorable but very weird and other students have complained, Miss Summers."
"They complained when my sister supposedly accidentally told a demon to come gather me back to Cleveland and that would've killed me from its poisoned touch too," she said dryly. "Mortimer protected me from another of those this morning."
"Your sister has issues."
"Yes, she does. The hairdye won their battle long ago." The teacher did laugh at that. "My sister never forgot she used to be an alpha cheerleader and I don't put up with her shit."
"It's good you got away from a toxic environment." She gathered the tests to be handed out as the other students walked in. "Get settled quickly so you have more time to take this essay test." A few groaned but they all settled in fast. At least until the kraken flowed out and rushed toward a corner of the room, making a demon appear as it attacked it. "Dawn?" she called over the shrieking.
"It's an assassin," she called back, pulling out a hidden crossbow and hitting the demon with a bolt. Then she rushed up with her machete. "Move, Mortimer. I don't want to hurt you too." The kraken got out of her way and she beheaded it. She patted it down, grimacing but it had to be done. She held up a ring and groaned. "Fuck." The teacher flinched. "Xander!" she yelled. "Help!" He appeared with a sword. She held up the ring and pointed.
He took it to look at. "Yeah, that's Taraka." She put her weapons back into her bag and hid them since they both heard security guards. "Guys," Xander said, waving a hand. "Dawn summoned me to help her." He frowned. "Is there an agent on campus?"
"The three that want to kill me," Dawn quipped.
"No, not them. Though they did try to get into Dr. Foster's work too. Fair warning," he quipped with a smirk at her.
"Sir, put down the sword," one of the guards said.
"Shut up," Xander said. He looked at the guard. "Dawn summoned me to help her with the demon assassin she had to take out." He held up the ring to the agent stomping in. "Taraka."
"We haven't gotten to see any of them," he said, taking the ring to look at. He ran his thumb over the markings. "It's worn. So he's not a newbie."
"No, and they're only for hire," Xander said, frowning at the demon body. He walked over, looking at it. "Dawn, did you search?"
"Just for the ring," she called. She looked around. "Guys, see if the teacher can use another room? That thing's going to decompose pretty fast and it's *such* a gross smell." They went with the teacher. She sat down, petting her friend. The agent stared at her. She shrugged. "Figured it was here for me. Buffy complained to high hell that I was going to Spain to do my masters."
He shook his head with a sigh. "Your sister is an idiot."
"No comment from us," Xander quipped. He patted the demon down, finding some papers. He pulled them out to look at, then handed it to the agent. "Not after Dawn for a change."
The agent took them to look at and grimaced. "Was she in here?" he asked Dawn, letting her see it by holding it up.
"Yeah. She was the brunette that fled in the middle of the pack. She always makes sure she's in the middle of the pack. I think her daddy does papers or something."
"We can check," the agent said, calling that in. He got her father's information and went to find her. "Harris, flee." He waved and left after a quick hug of Dawn.
Dawn sighed, looking at the guards. "I have to finish this semester and one other one," she said. "Then I get to flee." She got up, walking off. The teacher was having a fit in the hallway so Dawn walked around her and went in to look at a student. "The agent needs to see you. It wasn't about me," she said quietly.
"Damn it!" She got her stuff and walked out. "They sent an assassin after me?" she demanded. The agent let her see it. "That's my sister but we do look a lot alike." She looked up. "The last I heard she had joined some super secret group."
"We can talk about that and make sure you're safe, miss. Dawn, can it be canceled?"
"By the one who set it," she agreed. "Otherwise they'll all come until she's gone. They still have an order on my sister but gave up after three of them died in a day. They've been watching her to find a weak moment but generally give her a week after any apocalypse battle in thanks for making sure they survived too."
"Okay, good to know. You go do Dawn things," the agent ordered.
"Test?" she asked the teacher, who shook her head. "Thanks." She smiled a tiny bit. "At least it wasn't against me this time." She looked at a half-demon up the hallway. "Taraka," she called. "Not here for me." That one nodded. "Be safe, dude."
"You too, Summers." He stomped off.
The teacher looked then at her. "I've never seen him without his illusion I guess."
Dawn patted her on the arm. "His people tend to be warriors instead of scholars. He's a really good teacher though."
"He is. I had him for a few of my classes. Go home, Dawn." She leaned in the room. "It wasn't after Dawn, it's safe for now, we'll have the test next class and read the first section of the next book. You have a paper due in two classes on the next book." The students left and she went to talk to the college president, who was hissing and wincing at what had happened. The agent got the young woman back to their office to talk to her while Dawn went home.
An agent outside stopped Dawn by grabbing her arm. "Miss Summers, how did you get a crossbow into class?" he asked quietly.
She smiled. "Magic. It's damn handy for many things."
"I can tell. Do you always carry a crossbow?"
"Usually. I learned how to be cautiously non-paranoid from Xander." Mortimer the kraken was wiggling two tentacles at the agent. "I don't think he's a petting sort, Mortimer." The agent patted it and looked at her. She grinned. "He's a very protective friend."
"Your sister was noted up here recently?"
"She had a hissy that I'm not going back to Cleveland, yet again, and that I'm doing my masters in Spain after another semester."
He nodded once. "Figures. All right, go home, relax."
"She is not to have that thing here," a security guard complained.
"Stop it," the college president said. "The creepy little thing was helpful taking out that demon."
"His name's Mortimer," Dawn said with a smile. "He's not deadly to anyone. Though he can bite." She let the guard see him by holding him up. "He's a nice little plant. He's very loving and loves to play with long hair."
"It's still very weird."
"Then again, my sister's a slayer," she said dryly. "I know a good bit about freaky but safe things." The guard shuddered. "So he's not dangerous. He's just cuddly. He won't be dangerous until he's about cafeteria table sized." The guard walked off shuddering. She looked at the college president.
"He's helpful and you tend to leave him places he doesn't freak out?" he asked.
"He likes to hide in my backpack. He hates sunlight."
"Then that's fine I suppose." He walked off. "Thank you for the help and hiding the weapons, young lady."
"Have a better day, sir." She looked at the agent again, petting her little friend.
The agent shook his head. "Go home, Summers. Be safe and all that." She smiled, hurrying off. He called that in. Someone had to talk to her sister about being an idiot. When he heard that she had to get an excused absence for having been sent off-world by Rosenburg, that just made his week. Maybe they could finally get the witch into custody and get her mental help?
***
Xander knocked on the door, staring at Giles. He held up a paper, letting him grab it and growl at it. "I don't know who did it, but I was looking up the one that appeared in Dawn's class to get one of her classmates," he said. "And then we found that one." He stared at him. "I don't know why. I don't really care why because I'm going to assume someone's mind is mushy oatmeal consistency, Giles. So what do you want me to help her do about it?"
Giles looked at him. "Can we get it stopped?"
"Only they can cancel it."
Giles looked behind him then grimaced. "I doubt that would happen, no. Not without a good beating or six."
"Mera probably still has a softball bat," Xander offered.
"Do not tempt me, Xander." He licked his lips and made a small sucking noise. "I shall handle this. Have you warned Dawn?"
"Yeah. She promised to feed Mortimer his first human."
"What is Mortimer?" he asked. "A puppy or some such?"
"She found a baby kraken." He showed him a picture with a grin. "He's *very* protective of his human and Dawn plans on him protecting her forever and ever, even in a millennia when the idiot hellgoddess might come back."
"That's....incredibly weird," Giles agreed. "All right. I'll handle him." He looked at the young man. "You look well rested."
"After over a month of having my sleep interrupted by a spell," he said dryly. "Someone gave my sister a blanket with a sleep spell on it. I slept for two days." Giles winced. "So, yeah. I've finally gotten some." He grinned. "You have fun with them?"
"Yes, I believe I shall. Do you want to...." Xander shook his head quickly. "I understand."
"I doubt that considering I found the one on myself that someone put in your name." He let him see that paper. "And the one on Rosenburg." He let him have those as well. "So I'd really rather not check to see if my immunity for handling problems stretches right now. Especially since *someone* turned the Chief of Staff into a dog again. Though they don't believe it was Willow, they think it was a pouty student witch."
Giles rubbed his brow but nodded. "I will beat them senseless."
"Please do," Xander said with a nod and a grin. "Before they turn me into a goat again in front of starving people." Giles winced. "Oh, so much fun," he agreed. "And you knew that three days ago."
Giles stared at him. "I'll be sure to check myself for spells again. Thank you, Xander." Xander walked off. Giles went back to his office and forgot all about those, the spell was a bit strong on his doorway. Of course, he saw the papers and it jogged his memories. Yes, he had to handle a lot of problems. Including the bitching girls in the kitchen. "Andrew," he bellowed. He came in to stare at him. "Come help me remove spells from the office please. There's a lot of memory spells apparently going around again."
"We can check each other," Andrew said with a smile. Giles handed him the papers. "Awww, they're going evil. I really have to handle that."
"For right now, let's remove all those spells and put the energy into healing spells. Then we'll beat them to death."
"Giles, I'm a geek. I don't beat people, I make them sorry in multiple ways." They did get to work on the magic. Willow came in to pout at them but Giles turned to yell at her, making her flee in fear. Andrew waved a hand. "I can finish, Giles. You go have some stress relief." Giles nodded, taking off his glasses and leaving them there so he could go talk to Willow. Andrew removed the spells on the glasses too. Someone had some crackhead of magic ideas. Andrew used Giles' computer to hack a few places while the slayers screamed in fear but that was what was needed today.
***
Xander got stopped by an agent the next day, making him look at the guy oddly. "What? Did I stop the wrong person from summoning a demon again?"
"No," the agent said patiently. "We wanted to know what information you gave to Mr. Giles last night and if we can help."
"Oh, that. Yeah, a few of the old liners contracted with the Order of Taraka to take out some of us." He shrugged. "Not the first time." He walked off. "I'm told Giles realized they had magiced him too. Probably caused a huge temper surge. Pity but they brought it on themselves."
"What's the Order of Taraka?" the agent asked.
Xander grinned back at him. "I'm not Google, dude." He disappeared into the crowds going to a nearby coffee shop. He was tracking his sister again, and she was so tired she squeaked when he tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey."
"Buddy, don't harass her," the barista ordered.
"Dude, she's my sister. I'm allowed to harass her and make fun of her sleepy time hair." He smiled at Darcy. "Aren't I?"
"Usually. Though it's not because I was asleep. Don't worry, Barry. This is my little brother Xander." Xander grinned and waved. "Buy me a coffee, Xander?"
"You drink funny things in your coffee. But I'll pay for you to have funny coffee then make sure you get a nap."
"Jane hasn't slept yet," she sighed.
"So? I can nag your boss just like you can. And it'd hide me from Giles going 'round the bend as they say." He handed her money and she paid for a larger coffee, taking it with a grin. Xander grinned at him. "C'mon. I'll make sure you get tucked in then go nag your boss." She walked beside him, humming as she drank. Xander nodded at the guy tailing them then at Barnes when they walked past him. Barnes spotted the other guy and that guy fled. Barnes got to chase him.
"Huh." Darcy looked up at him. "Someone running from your shopping buddy." He waved at the security team. "I'm making sure she gets an ugly nap. She's had too much beauty sleep. That's why someone was trying to follow her coffee back here." One snorted but let Darcy sign them in and take them up to her apartment. Xander tucked her in and went to the labs, sliding into Darcy's seat to restart her game while Jane read, tinkered, and tried to decreate the universe. Again. When Jane waved her cup, Xander took it to get her coffee, nodding at the few people who stared at him oddly. He winked at a guard, who just rolled his eyes.
Banner met him in there while grabbing a bottle of water. "Why are you here?"
"Darcy was dead on her feet so I'm nagging her Jane for her today," he said dryly. "Only three people have realized I'm not that sort of geek."
"Many of them are in their own world," Banner agreed dryly.
"Hmm. That's why a HYDRA goon was in one of the labs?" He pointed across the hall. "I don't believe that guy, who I fucked long and hard two weekends ago, is one of you either. Stark doesn't seem like the sort to employ evil. And I spotted one tailing Darcy on the way back to the tower from her coffee shop. Barnes took off after him."
"Great," Banner sighed, texting Tony while he leaned against a counter. "We're going to go into lockdown. They'll ask you for your ID."
"I can present one. I'm just a sub." He shrugged. "Let me go back to nagging her Jane for her." He looked in the fridge and grimaced. "I'll order her something."
"She's picky and lives on poptarts."
"Yeah, I've seen girls that do that too," Xander agreed. He carried the coffee back with a spare cup for her. He put one next to her hand and sat back down. Jane gulped it then spotted the second cup. She sipped that one and got back to work. Xander waved at a guard, getting an odd look. He wrote and held up a note saying he was subbing for his sister, who desperately needed a nap, and he had spotted her being tracked back here. That one had run from Barnes.
The guard nodded and pointed. Xander put his feet up with a grin, getting a nod back. Jane was still working on her math homework so Xander fussed at some of the supposed organization of the lab. He puttered straightening things up. Then he sat down to sort the mail that was piling up on a corner of the desk. He looked up as someone was dragged out swearing, smirking and waving at them. They spotted him and their eyes went wide, but they quit struggling and tried to run instead.
Xander shrugged and grinned at Hill, making 'screwed him' hand motions. She rolled her eyes as she stomped off. Xander got up to make Jane some coffee in the in-lab coffeemaker but it was filthy. He washed it and started new coffee for her. She grunted her thanks when he put a cup next to her. His devious plan to make Jane eat went off with him ordering lunch and grabbing it from security for her. She didn't realize it was him instead of Darcy until after dark when Thor came in and paused.
Thor stared at him. "You are not quite as pretty as your sister," he said.
Jane flinched and stared, blinking at Xander. "Why are you here? Darcy wasn't going anywhere tonight."
"Darcy's been in bed all day," he said dryly. "I managed to get hold of something that said someone was going to kidnap you two sometime today. They took an agent out of here earlier, Jane."
"How long have you been here?" she demanded.
"Nine." He grinned. "Would you like the address of the place that made you that salad?"
"I... Salad?" She looked at the plate. "I ate a salad. I didn't even realize."
"It's a foodie place that caters to whiny people who hate food," Xander said. He wrote down the information from his phone. "They do completely allergy free stuff, which is why I know it." He slid the papers over. "Before you can nag her, I didn't do a thing with your work. I'm more math stupid than Darcy is."
"That's...I didn't figure you'd want to open a portal."
"Not unless I'm desperate." He grinned at Thor.
"I have been in those sort of battles," he agreed. "It's good you made her eat. Jane, would you like dinner? We can go there to see what else they have on offer." She smiled, gathering things and locking them in the safe. Xander handed her two more notebooks and she nodded, putting them in there. "Was that person earlier here for her?"
"Hill's text message said he was here to kidnap his girlfriend who broke up with him. They found another three agents here who were going to steal information. Including Jane's. There's some sort of group that wants to prove that we need a bigger military and all that by starting a war with a portal. That would eliminate the slayers being independent and make the military deal with it by probably opening up the portal onto a base."
"They're so dumb," Jane said.
"Yeah, but they're supposed patriots and they just want the US to be stronger again. Back when we were the premier military power in the world." He shrugged as he stretched his legs. "Which is why my sometimes sleeping aid helper wanted to kidnap Darcy at that poetry thing. He admitted it when I heard and went to ask him bluntly at knife point. The guy really needs to learn how to lock his doors." He shook his head, grinning at her. "Darcy's probably still asleep. She was a zombie when I ran into her this morning. Since I know she can stay up for two or three days...." He gave her a pointed look. "Do you know what day it is?"
"You're not her."
"No, but I did learn how to nag just as much as she has, Darcy's Jane." He grinned. "By the way, it's Thursday."
She looked at her watch. "It's Thursday?" She looked at Thor, who nodded. "Oh, damn it. I'm sorry I missed our date last night, Thor."
"We can go out tonight. I had nothing planned. Or even tomorrow if you want." He walked her off. Xander followed so Jane could lock her lab down better than usual.
Stark walked up the hallway. "We just see you everywhere, Harris."
"I'm not twins anymore so I don't think I've been in more than one place today," he quipped.
"Twins?" Jane demanded. "How did you do that?"
"Ask your guy to explain Toth and his hammer," he said. "He got me by accident but I was put back together by the Empress of Menace."
Thor groaned, shaking his head. "I had heard of such an artifact."
"He was the woman I nearly married's ex-husband," Xander quipped. "You can tell her about Anyanka too if you want. It's a great bedtime story. She'd be pleased to be remembered."
Thor stared at her. "You nearly married...."
"Her friends showed us we'd be miserable so I walked, left her at the altar." Thor slumped, staring at him. "She did get her job back but then she had a conscience so lost it again. She died in the battle of the First." He stuck his hands into his pockets. "She'd really like to be remembered if you want to tell her."
"I shall." He walked Jane off. She was looking up at him. "It comes from ancient Norse times. She was a very ...efficient woman at times."
Stark looked at him. "You nearly married a vengeance demon?"
"Former. She had lost her job because her power center got broken."
"Damn." He walked off again. "Darcy's still asleep."
"I ordered her stuff she'll like cold." He carried that bag up to her apartment, sticking it into her fridge and settling on her couch to watch her cable until she got up. He was a fantastic little brother. He caught a show on tv that he hadn't seen before, about demon hunters. He was highly amused at it. Maybe he and Darcy should team up that way and go handle things for a bit. They'd be hot traveling around to handle problems and it'd give him someone to talk to since he was already doing that sort of job. Though without the cool car. He could really use a cool car.
When Darcy stumbled out, he pulled her down to nap next to him so she could watch it too. She got happy with that.
***
Jane looked at Darcy the next morning. "Your brother's too sneaky. I didn't realize that he was here pretending to be you all day." Darcy just grinned. "He could've seen anything, Darcy."
"Yeah but Xander's not going to do anything with it, Jane. You know that."
"Point." Dawn appeared with a huff, hugging her little kraken. "Dawn, problems?" Jane asked.
"Many." She looked up then at Darcy. "There's apparently a prophecy about two sisters. They're going to sacrifice me, put my essence into you, impregnate you, then kill you when they have the kid, who is going to be an ultimate body for a reborn goddess."
Darcy shook her head. "I don't want kids." Dawn grinned at her. "Any idea who was going to do this and why?"
"One of the old line watchers is behind most of that cult." Stark leaned in a minute later, staring at her. "What? Is the college still in lockdown because a group of robed idiots tried to kill me with magic?"
"Yup." He stared at her. "Why?"
"They were going to kill me, put my essence into Darcy to impregnate her and do rites on the baby. Then she'd die after she gave birth to the future body of the hell goddess reborn."
Stark blinked at her. "Why do they have these plans?" he groaned.
"There's a prophecy," Darcy quipped. "Fuck them. Right up the nose with Mortimer's tentacles." Dawn burst out giggling, leaning down to give her a hug. "We can protect us both, Dawn."
"Thanks." She sat against the wall, looking at her. "I'm not so sure Buffy didn't know with the way she kept trying to get me back to Cleveland."
"That's a horrible thought to have about your sister," Jane said. "Unless it's true."
"I don't know."
"Xander left before I got up," Darcy said. "I can text message him."
Dawn waved a hand and hit a few buttons on her phone then sent the message. "Coded 'I escaped' call." She put her phone beside her then looked at Mortimer. Then at Darcy. She looked up the hall past Stark's legs. "And they're here too." She grabbed her phone as she stood up. "Let me go find a hiding spot." She set something on her belt off and they disappeared. She looked at Wong, Stephen's assistant. "Have you ever heard of an Oritox prophecy?"
"No," he said. "Will the master know?"
"Damn I hope he's not one that's going to try to sacrifice me for it," Dawn quipped. "I'm going to hide in a corner if he's not here. Before I have to go bind someone to me to protect me." Wong pointed so she sat on a corner chair to cuddle her helpful kraken. He went to call his boss. At least until someone knocked then Dawn let him get the door while she found her knife.
The sorcerer who walked in paused, staring at Dawn. "Who are you?" he demanded.
"I'm Dawn. I'm waiting on the good sorcerer to get home to see what I can do to stop a prophecy. You?"
He sneered. "Who are you to demand anything, child."
Dawn stood up and let her aura out. "Shut the fuck up, you minor little weakling wannabe Loki." He was backing away from her. "Just sit down and wait on him to get back. There's plenty of chairs." She waved a hand. "You're being really rude in someone else's house."
"You brought a creature here!" he said with a point at Mortimer.
"Mortimer protects me and he knows. It used to live in one of his closets." Mortimer waved at the guy then went back to calming down his human. She sat down with a huff when Stephen walked in glaring. "Sorry. I was swatting an ego instead of stressing over a prophecy to get me sacrificed."
He looked at her. "What?"
"Oritox prophecy," she mouthed. "Me and Darcy."
He went to his library, coming out with a book. "Who has that bad of taste?" he asked her.
"At least one of the old line watchers is one of that cult. So I was going to hide here in the corner for a bit until your badly dressed friend there demanded to know what I was doing." She head nodded at him. "It's sad that he wants to be Loki and can't even dress as well as he does."
Stephen looked at him before he got into a discussion with Dawn. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to talk to you about a problem going on down in Virginia."
"Probably at my college. I had to pull up a great bit of magic to stop the cult from killing me. I've let the security email know that I'm safely away so they can take the college out of lockdown. Maybe I'll do my last semester in Spain after all."
Stephen looked at her then sighed. "Are things always so complicated around you, Dawn?"
"No. Right now I'm wondering if my sister kept wanting me in Cleveland so they could sacrifice me though."
He raised an eyebrow. "I did not take your sister as being that cold."
"Me either but I gotta wonder."
"True, but calm down and pull in your aura before it finishes setting off my protections." She looked up then did that. Mortimer purred and cuddled her better.
The other sorcerer pointed. "You let her bring in a creature?"
"It's being peaceful and calming so I don't mind that she took it out of the closet it had been hiding in," Stephen said dryly. "It would not harm me or her."
The sorcerer glared at her. "You're still a rude child."
"Unless you want me to banish you to Rosenburg, I'd get out of my face. I'm not in the mood for an argument or this shit today." The sorcerer sneered.
"Dawn," the Sorcerer Supreme ordered. "Down, reign in your temper, young lady."
She glared at him. "I have the right to have a temper with the idiot."
"Still. You're going to set off the protections and you'll both end up trapped in a room." He gave her a pointed look. She huffed but pulled in her power. He looked at the other sorcerer. "Is that the problem you showed up to talk about?" he asked more politely.
"I can't believe it was her. She's an untrained...." He squeaked as he shrank suddenly into a rat.
"Wasn't me," Dawn quipped. "Or Rosenburg or the coven. I can tell them. That was a male power." She looked at Wong, who shook his head quickly.
Strange pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. He tested the magic, shaking his head. "Loki did it."
"Why is Loki protecting me?" she asked. She looked up then at him. "He's still locked in Stark tower."
Stephen looked at her. "What happened?" She got up to turn on the tv and changed the channel to one of the news channels. Then she sat down in the corner again. He watched, frowning at it. "Why were they attacking...oh. To sacrifice you. Charming."
"To implant me into Darcy."
"I doubt she wants to be a mother that way," he said dryly. He turned off the coverage and looked at her. "Your temper is reasonably high but he is not the source to take it out on."
"No, he kept pushing his bitchy moment on me though. I just fought back."
"Point." He stared at her. "You can have a couch."
She grinned. "I'm waiting on someone to find me a good hiding spot."
"It'd have to be warded, Dawn, and most of the ones your friend Xander knows wouldn't have those sort of protections. Rest on the couch." He pointed. She went that way. He picked up the rat to look at and unfroze him, earning a lot of squeaking. "Shut up before I leave you that way." The rat quit squeaking and yelling at him. He changed him back. "Now, was there anything else?"
"She did that!" he shouted. "I challenge her to a duel!"
"Loki did that," Strange said. "And if you want a duel, you'd have a lot of problems."
Dawn came out without Mortimer. "If he wants a duel, we can do that." She shot the guy in the knee. "Anything else you wanted to try?" The guy blasted magic at her and she attacked with a sword. The sorcerer fought back but Dawn's powers sucked his out of his shields and around her sword so he was cutting himself. The guy screamed at one cut and started to crap his pants but she backed off. "It's up to you if it's a duel to the death since you called me out."
She stared at him. "Well? I'm waiting." Wong took the sword. "I don't really need that, Wong. I'm not a one trick pony like this one." The sorcerer yelled as he sent magic at her. She blocked it, rolled the ball into her shields, and then shot magic at the things behind him. The three axes on the wall flew down to land in the guy's limbs. Then she cast a spell to freeze him to save his life. She grimaced. "I hate wannabes." She went back to the couch.
Strange was staring in awe. "Well." He blinked at Wong, who shrugged. "I have never seen that technique used."
"Xander had to teach himself to use anything he could pick up and trained me the same way," she called from her couch. "I might be powerful but I don't do traditional magic."
"I had forgotten you weren't the usual witch, Dawn." Rosenburg appeared and he froze her then sent both of them to a healer he knew of. Perhaps that healer could find what was wrong with the redheaded witch as well as heal the other sorcerer. He looked at Wong. "Find me anything on that prophecy so we can go around it."
"Yes, sir." He went to the library. He had to wonder if those two were flirting with each other. It appeared to be so to him but one never knew what was in that orderly mind.
Dawn looked up at him. "My sister thought you were flirting during that meeting," she said quietly. "I think Wong thinks the same thing."
"I have admiration for your strength of will, Dawn, but I have no desire to besmirch you."
She snorted, waving a hand. "I doubt you'd be able to do much my last few boyfriends couldn't, but I don't expect it anyway. But you might want to talk to Wong. He had that same look on his face."
"I will later. Settle in and rest while we see what we can do to protect you." He went to his office to look things up. After he called that healer to check on his old friend, who was in a shitty mood for some reason.
***
Thor looked at Darcy a few days later. "I have heard from home." She put down her magazine to look at him. "My people have said I cannot bring you home with me, even if it were an emergency."
Darcy stared at him. "That proves your people aren't any more humane than humans are," she said dryly. He scowled. "Seriously. That means that they've shown they have no honor, no compassion, and no sense. Because if I nearly get killed for helping you with things, I'm going to come up there and kill half of everyone." She smiled slightly. "Got it?"
He nodded slowly. "They would not allow you up the bridge."
"Thor, there's more than one way onto Asgard," she said bluntly. "Otherwise there wouldn't be other artifacts down here that were made on one of the other nine realms. It might take me a bit to get through all of them but there's ways. I've seen two maps of them." He shivered. "So yeah, if they're that desperate to get you back, they can suck me. If they endanger my life out of spite for helping you win battles, they're goners. And if it was your dad, I have a special dagger I can bum to deal with him. Now, any other problems?"
"No," he admitted. "I..." He cleared his throat. "I'm sure they would change their minds if it was an emergency, Darcy."
"No they wouldn't. They're still nagging Jane about being human, Thor. You have petty, whiny babymen in charge up there. Thankfully, Sif has better skills and sense than most of your people." She went back to reading. "But I'll remember that when the world turns on you guys for being heroic the next time. I can make plans for a few of us, including Jane probably."
"They made the argument that you would not survive long up there."
She looked at him. "And how long would I survive down here?" He slumped. "I'm pretty damn crafty, Thor. I can survive anywhere but if they do that out of spite, they're goners. Period. I'll go all the way to evil and end all the threats to my life. After all, I did learn a bit here and there." He nodded, swallowing again. "Good." She smiled. "You can tell them I said that too."
"They would send someone to take you out."
"That's different from the two that tried after the battle in London how?" she asked. She went back to flipping pages while waiting on Jane to get out of the shower. Thor spluttered. "You didn't know that I had to fight off two junior warriors? Huh. Jane knew. Hell, Eric knew. Even Ian knew, he caught me fighting off one." She looked at him again, smiling at Steve when she caught him looking. Then she stared at Thor.
"Both of them had clear signs of inbreeding with the way their jaws were malformed and they looked like pale, hairless cats." Thor stared, mouth open. "I tazed one and the other one I stabbed when he tried to trip into me to bring me to the ground so he could stab me. Pity, but I didn't want to get that messy on the way to the bar.
"Did you think I didn't ask to learn some self defense in college, Thor? Women who are big chested often get harassed by men who think that boob touching is their right. I broke more than one wrist in bars over the years. I've tazed a few others and two I had to pepper spray because even the bar's bouncers weren't going to help me that time. One was hoping that they ripped my shirt so he could watch him rape me.
"That one didn't like it when I had the club busted by calling in a weapons call to 911. They found more than a few so they were happy and when they heard why I had called they agreed I had done the right thing and they had acted faster for a weapons call than they would to help me get free. Underneath it all, all beings are still part animal in nature. Even your people apparently."
He cleared his throat. "I would hope that those warriors were sent home in disgrace?"
"I have no idea what the police over there did with them. Don't really care," she admitted. "I'm sure they're unhappy that they failed no matter where they ended up." Jane came out tucking in her t-shirt. "Thor's people said I can't go to Asgard even if you go and it's an emergency."
Jane nodded. "Fuck 'em then." Thor stared at her, mouth open. She stared back. "They wanted me to die with th Aether too, Thor. Your father is someone I could do with never seeing again to be honest. He hates me and I don't care." She walked off to get a cup of coffee.
"You two were going to that open air theater thing," Darcy reminded her. She put the coffee into a to-go cup instead and came back sipping it. "Have fun at the play, guys." They nodded and left, him talking to her on the way there about things. She had to understand a few things, which she did, but she did not like them. Nor did she state she'd put up with them. When he told her of Darcy's threat she agreed she'd help Darcy get up there to kill them for being petty assholes. After all, Darcy hadn't signed up to get killed because she knew him. He considered that during the play and on the way back home that night. He would talk to Steve the next day about it. Get some perspective.
***
Dawn was at the local history museum in New York when a reporter spotted her. "What?" she demanded when the woman jogged toward her.
"There's rumors stating you're dating Dr. Strange," she said with a manic grin.
"Someone needs to quit smoking funny things," Dawn said sarcastically. "I'm using some of his stored artifacts for a thesis paper and I've worked with him a few times on protection things, but we are not dating. If we were, I'd guess he would've asked me out before now and I don't take him to be the shy around women sort. Since he hasn't, I doubt that's more than someone's nighttime fantasy." She stared at the reporter, who was looking angry. "Sorry but not reality. Have a better day, ma'am." She walked off making notes in her notebook about that possessed painting. She'd come back to it later.
"Who are you anyway?" she demanded.
"Just a college student," she said dryly.
"You're a witch," she sneered.
Dawn looked at her. "I'm an artifact researcher, ma'am." The woman glared at her. She shrugged. "I don't care if you don't like it. If I do or don't have magical gifts is none of your business. Nor is anything in my life as I'm not a public figure."
"I've seen you at plenty of things."
"I do have a sister that's a slayer," Dawn said. "But otherwise I doubt it. I don't usually show up to help with battles unless I'm pulled there." She stared the woman down. "You have a better day, ma'am. You're causing a scene and bothering the others in here with us. I have stuff I have to do so can you go?" She went to another room. The reporter was following her. Dawn put up with her nosy questions for almost twenty more minutes.
"I bet you are a witch and you used some freaky spell to make him fall for you," the reporter sneered.
Dawn looked at her. "Love spells don't work that way. My sister ran into one in high school." She faced her better, staying calm. "Second, I have ethics. Why would I need to love spell anyone? That's the equivalent of drugging them and then raping them. Do I look like a rapist to you?" The woman flinched back. "I don't do things like that. I have ethics and sense. If the man was interested in me, he would've asked me out. He hasn't so clearly he's not interested in me that way. My past papers he got a kick out of but he's not looking to throw me onto something and show me the universe in multiple, magical ways. I'm sorry someone misled you and that makes you angry, but you're angry at the wrong source. Now, is there anything else you wanted to accuse me of doing that I haven't?"
"You know magic clearly," she sneered.
"Yes, I do. Part of what I do is looking at mystical artifacts to find out if they can be made safe to store. A few can't, a lot can, and some are stuffed full of things that shouldn't get released. Though I did find one that a male nature witch stuffed his girlfriend into for dumping him."
"A warlock?" she sneered.
Dawn shook her head. "A warlock is an oath breaker," Dawn said patiently. "A witch is a witch even if they're male. It's all about power levels, not your gender or your sexuality. If you knew anything you'd know that. I don't practice and I know that." The reporter huffed off. Dawn smiled and waved at her back. "Have a better day, ma'am." She looked at the staring security guard. "Not my fault," she defended. "I stayed polite, didn't swear, and didn't cause a scene."
"You did. You're an artifact researcher?"
"Yup. Working on my first thesis level paper. I'm going to Spain's program after another semester. I'm actually working on possessed things. I'm going back to that one painting then upstairs to the rock study room that has a stuffed geode." She walked off, getting back to work. Willow was in there waiting on her. "Morning. Are you better?"
"He is so flirting with you. He let you have your *pet*," Willow sneered.
"Willow, Mortimer's not dangerous so why would he want to keep letting it take up space? There's plenty of other dangerous things that could be stored in that closet of his." She got back to work. Willow tried to take her notebook and Dawn yanked it back. "I'm doing college work. Thanks anyway."
"You got expelled," she smirked.
"I doubt that. I talked to the college president and the chair of the department I'm in and they both told me how to take my tests long distance for the rest of this semester." She stared at her. "You have a bad fantasy world just like that reporter, Willow," she said quietly. "You're not going to stop me from working with what I want to do for my life. You're not going to rule my life or even give me orders, because you're about nothing to me anymore. You've proved yourself to be unstable and unreliable. You've clearly confused my sister magically again since she was calling me by our mother's name earlier today.
"You're a sin against magic and a blot on the world. Now, leave me alone before I have to find a way to make a magical restraining order. I do have poker debts." She got back to work. Willow tried to zap her but Dawn pulled something out and used it to capture the magic and Willow. She put the cube back into her messenger bag and sighed. It was nice that they had sent that cube back to her to protect. The guard was staring in horror at her.
"One end does say not to open that, it'll release an evil thing," Dawn quipped. "I'm glad I could put the evil in there. It might save the city." She got back to taking measurements on the painting. "Hmm. They mixed the demon's blood into the brown and blue paints," she said, making that note. "So probably summoned it into the painting to get it away from someone they cared for. I suppose that means he painted this one really fast." She went upstairs to look at that possessed geode and found that the demon in there was dead but would be revived by blood it felt like. Or possibly blood tainted water. One of the museum workers came over and she smiled. "Hi, Dawn Summers." She shook her hand.
"I heard about your request to study things. What have you found?"
"Well, this demon's able to be revived. It's currently dead but can be brought back with some blood or even blood tainted water." She looked at her. "It's mostly in this half but when it broke it basically ripped the demon apart. So it wouldn't be hard to put it back together and revive it." She smiled. "That's unusual but not totally atypical. I've seen it done to ones that were trapped in books and paintings both. There's a nice, tidy ritual to revive and call them from their imprisonment. It'd take about three hours and whoever did it could claim dominion over the demon if they were strong enough to chain it to them. I've only seen two that were and one was to protect her family. The other one was a researcher in Egypt that wanted answers on some things they were researching."
"Interesting. Hard?"
"Chalk on the floor or marker on tape on the floor. Some blood, a bit of power but that can be gotten if they have access to another magical source if they don't have any themselves. So anything like a protection amulet could be drained for that. Some pawn shops in the city do take in protection amulets. The local slayers reported that two of them do when they found things in them." The museum worker smiled and nodded. "So far this is unusual but not absolutely rare. And you have another possessed rock around here in an adjoining room. It feels more formed though so I'd say jewelry?"
"Perhaps. We can look." She walked her into that room. Dawn detoured and looked at something then groaned and made a note. "What's that?"
"That is part of a huge demon that needs to be put together to be woken up. Just assembled and mumbled over. It nearly destroyed humanity and it can only be killed by a weapon not made by mankind." She looked at her. "I know there's two other pieces in the open. My sister fought it once. She used a rocket launcher to blow it back to pieces."
"Oh, dear. Do we know the name or any history on it?"
"I can ask if they can send you that." She pulled out her phone to call. "Giles? Oh, Hermans. I'm up here at the New York History museum and they have a piece of the Judge on display. Yes, that demon. The museum worker wanted to know about it. Can you send up the information? Well, actually, I know there's three pieces total in the open. Two were up for auction last year and we heard too late. I told Giles about that. Yes, Giles. Up here. Ummm."
She opened it to look inside. "Left leg." She reclosed the top and locked it. "Please. Miss Sullivan is the one that I'm talking to about a few possessed things. No, a painting, a geode, and this. Thanks." She hung up. "He'll copy it and send it up, though this isn't what I felt." She led her to the other thing, pointing at it. "That's got imps in it. Not horribly problematic but if they get out, they'll cause some hell." She looked at her and smiled. "They do like to create a mess. They'd probably interfere with the electrical systems too. Two imps nearly took out a dorm at NYU last year from the slayer's report."
"That's good to know. The same sort of level of skill to release it?"
Dawn nodded. "Probably even easier. Wearing it and rubbing it while thinking about releasing them probably. Imps aren't that hard to chain up. Something like the geode took skill to put the demon into it and lock it in there. This they just had to lay a trap and summon one. Like going 'shiny thing' to a kid and pointing."
Miss Sullivan nodded. "That's excellent to know. We can make sure that's got a good lock on the case. This painting?" Dawn led her to it. "We've often wondered about that one."
"He mixed demon blood into the blue and brown paints from what I can tell." She handed over the glasses on the top of her head. "They have telling spells on them. Very handy at times." Miss Sullivan put them on to look at the painting, staring in awe. "I'm guessing he painted it fast to get the demon summoned into it."
"The artist actually took over a year to paint that one. Interesting theory though. How would he do that to trap something? I can almost see the face."
Dawn nodded. "He'd have used the blood to summon the demon into the painting. I figured it was probably bothering someone he knew."
"Huh. Can we test for that?"
"That I don't know. I haven't done a great study of testing things suspended in paint. Though I did notice something in this area," she said, pointing with the back of her pen. Miss Sullivan got closer to look at it, nodding slowly. "See those little charms painted on the wallpaper?"
"I do. I thought those were just wallpaper patterns." She handed the glasses back and got a magnifying glass to look at it better. "That's... huh."
"Yeah. I didn't see any that were specifically holding it in there. The three I recognized without any research are all health spells." She shrugged. "I don't know why or even if he mixed someone else's blood into those before he painted it on."
"Giving someone else a healing spell?"
"Probably could. Usually you draw the marks on them with, depending on the healing spell, blood or oil. So I don't think they were healing the demon."
"Very interesting. The curator will want to know about that. How do you get those glasses made?"
She smiled. "There's a small shop in Greenwich Village that can do that. Another in Queens."
"That's great. Thank you." She shook her hand. "How long before you're done for the day? We're about to close."
"I can go now. The only other stabbing spire of mystical energy around here is in the attic and it's radiating so I'm guessing someone's got it in some sort of containment chamber it's trying to get out of. That's mystical but not possessed that I can tell by what I'm feeling and what my necklace tells me." She held it up. "The red glow means it's magical, not possessing, and the glow depth shows how strong it is. It glowed the brightest from the hallway by the armors."
Miss Sullivan looked up and moved her hand then frowned. "I think I know what that is. Can we stop it?"
"That's something to ask an actual witch. It's trying to get free to fulfill the spell it feels like. So someone stopped something. Xander strolled behind them. "Xander, what's that artifact?"
"The one I shipped back from Kenya. It's the thing that was anchoring a portal to a world that had gremlins like on the movie." He looked at the museum worker, smiling a bit. "Want me to break it?" She nodded, taking him up there. "Happy night, Dawn."
"You too, Xander." She went back to the Sanctuary, shaking her head as she walked in and found Stephen looking amused. "Xander's handling the artifact that has a portal to the world of the gremlins movie." He shook his head but still looked amused. "That painting's got some weird things but is definitely possessed. The geode's demon was ripped when it was broken open but can be revived, and I did tell a reporter off for thinking that we're dating."
"That's why I'm amused," he agreed with a smirk.
"I told her that we're not and you would've let me know if you wanted to get down and funky with me. I didn't think you wanted them to spread that rumor around the town."
"No, I agree, I can easily tell you if I wanted to date you." He smirked at her. She grinned. "Your little pet is being a menace however." He pointed.
Dawn looked. "Did you grow, Mortimer?" That one tried to capture her but Mortimer got free and came to cuddle her again. "Aww, is that your parent? That's cool you were getting cuddles but Doc wants to be able to get upstairs to the bathroom. Remember, humans need to do that. That's why you can't live in the toilet at times. You learned that lesson the hard way." Stephen was choking, shaking his head as he walked off.
"Hey, Momma of my Mortimer buddy, can you get out of the way of the stairs for a bit?" It moved. "Aww, you caught possessed vampire mice! That's so sweet, baby." She petted one of those tentacles. "Very nicely done, dear." Stephen and Wong both came out to look at those undead mice. They got things to cage them and Dawn took Mortimer back to her apartment by UVA for the night. It was a cool night so they could get cuddly on her almost-a-porch.
Wong looked at his master. "She is quite lively and does bring interesting challenges."
"Yes, she does," he agreed. "Though not always at the best times." He moved the kraken back into containment and went to rest for a bit. He had a headache for some reason. It also let him get away from the pointed hints that he could be dating. He really had to find the cause of that nagging and unspell it.
***
A Harris and a Half.