135. Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition

The motley and their friends fight for their lives.

***"I know what it is to be legendary: games are full of legends, after all."***

Standing outside of Heart's Light, the legendary Garou known as Zhyzhak savages Patches, grabbing the Rocket Containment Unit from her. Braum, still blazing in his chimerical glory, imbues Patches with the strength of dragons while Xaeron leaps back and casts a cantrip on Claude's body to prevent anyone from taking him. Zhyzhak scoffs at Braum, advising him not to "ask for a challenge" if he can't deliver. Sophia steps in, telling Zhyzhak that they, like her, want to defeat the Wyrm. They even destroyed a Hive here on the island!

"*You* destroyed a Hive?" Zhyzhak asks with curiousity. The Kithain admit that they supported those Garou who went inside, but it's not enough to save them: Zhyzhak names herself the "Chosen of the Green Dragon" and the best of the Black Spiral Dances. If the motley agree to swear fealty to the Green Dragon, she will let them live… but if not, they will fall, and she will bring about the Apocalypse. Patches squares off to the Garou, telling her that they've already driven off one Green Dragon on these grounds….

Zhyzhak launches an all-out attack on the motley, slashing at all of them with a whip make of pure hellfire. Patches manages to Mooch the Rocket Containment Unit back from Zhyzhak as Braum moves in to engage, trying to grapple her with his massive strength. While he manages to grab the whip, her superhuman strength allows her to break free, and she belches green flames on to them. Sophia shouts out a wild lie that catches Zhyzhak: the one who set them on the path to destroying the Hive was none other than Li-Tili, her Changeling ward! Patches manages to Flicker Flash everyone out, leaving the Rocket Containment Unit behind "accidentally" (to trick Zhyzhak into thinking it's the code to activate the Rocket).

Appearing on Mount Royal near the abandoned rest stop Braum had hoped to make into a freehold, the motley take in a terrifying scene. The sky has gone almost black, and green flames have leapt up around the nearby Garou cairn. Standing triumphantly near the rest stop is High Lord Li-Tili, reveling in the sight. The motley try to talk him back from the brink of Bedlam, but Li-Tili is ecstatic to be so close to his goal: re-establishing dominion over the Garou. As Zhyzhak and other Black Spiral Dancers begin to crest over the hill, Patches uses Chronos to replay the Balor Lord's words to them. As Braum holds him down and Sophia summons vines to gag him, Zhyzhak opens a pit beneath Li-Tili, dragging him down towards the fiery depths. "Help me," the sidhe whispers, before being swallowed up by the ground.

Zhyzhak calls upon her pack, four other terrifying Garou known as the Dragon Daughters pack, as Braum tries to call Fala: "what makes you think we're not already here?" the eshu intones. Bursting onto the scene with Kyoko, the motley charge into battle! Sophia attempts to reach out to Scythe telepathically, their dragon souls being connected, and the flap of wings can be heard. As Braum's shield freezes one of the Garou to the ground, Patches flies up into the air, and Sophia guides Xaeron's sword Brushstroke to draw the strength from another. Talus appears, driving a van, with Cog firing a lightning gun out the side, and an enraged Incisor leaping out of the back!

As Braum's stone skin absorbs the flames from Zhyzhak's whip, Sophia sets Brushstroke aflame so Xaeron can incinerate a werewolf; Patches and Cog combine forces to fire lightning-powered bullets into Zhyzhak. Braum calls upon the Dreaming to "freeze Hell over", and the whip shatters in the Garou's hand! Fala is knocked away, and Kyoko knocked out as she drifts up into the sky. Zhyzhak creates a crystalline cage around herself in Braum, with no way in or out: now, the true challenge has been issued. As Braum calls upon the sky to shroud himself in crackling lightning, Xaeron draws silver out of the air, falling onto their foes. Patches blows a hole in the head of one Garou as Sophia tries desperately to destroy the crystalline cage. Inside, Braum gives away the fact that the Rocket Containment Unit is useless, and Zhyzhak leaps at him, slashing him down. As the barrier shatters, the troll lies at the Garou's feet, dying.

Patches, however, does not accept defeat so easily. Using Déjà Vu, she sends herself back in time, using Zistor's Mercy to heal Braum back up to full strength and allowing Sophia to shield him! Past Braum, now able to see his mistake, successfully tricks Zhyzhak into using the Rocket Containment Unit, locking the Rocket safely away. Braum's lightning scorches the Garou as she falls, but her immense Rage brings her back to her feet! As she slashes at the troll over and over, Patches manages to ensnare her as Sophia moves to heal the others. Zhyzhak, the legend, is stuck down, and the motley and their friends take stock. The carnage on the mountain is over… and they are alive.