Now You C Me, Now You Don't

**Little Camelot Park, Halcyon City, the C-verse, March 3rd, 2020, 9:21 P.M.**

The clear night sky is disrupted by a flash of lightning. It strikes the ground in a clear area of the park, leaving Lichtenberg scorch marks on the ground. As it hits, a girl with shoulder-length curly brown hair appears. AJ kicks the ground and lets out a frustrated yell and shoots a nearby tree with lightning. It splinters, but doesn’t catch on fire. AJ looks disappointed for a moment before shaking her head.

“Can’t think of anyone but yourself for ten minutes, can you Mom?”

She had two days. Two days to plan out how to steal from that uppity wizard again, who definitely had upped their security since her last break in. She’d need help. But Bolt would ask too many questions, and Ellen would need her to take more than the item AJ needed, which upped the risk even more. And this heist couldn’t go wrong. She *needed* to get this item. The only problem was how…

Behind the smoldering tree, a motorcycle appears with a crack out of thin air. It skids to a halt a dozen feet from AJ, leaving a smoldering trail in the grass behind it. One of the occupants — a short figure in a long cloak — hops off. She takes off her hood and looks around, revealing grey skin and a pair of cat ears.

"Huh. Doesn't look like a different universe yet! Sky's blue and everything, not a floaty crystal or sentient mushroom in sight."

She turns back to the other figure, extending a hand to help her off the bike.

“Goddammit. Alright lemme check the overclock again, maybe we didn’t hit *enough* switches.” Ellen takes Tay’s hand and crouches at the front of the bike, fiddling with a box attached to the fuel tank. “UV, can you keep an eye out for any- oh.”

She starts a quick scan of the area, *immediately* spotting the apparently pissed off Verve about 10 feet away.

“Holy shit UV. Is- is that Verve?” Ellen freezes in shock, like that one time they arrived in the middle of a velociraptor den. Who makes a theme park full of dinosaurs?

Tay’s ears perk up the moment she hears the name, eyes fixing on the figure a bit away.

“Atlanta!”

She runs forward and pounces, like that one time they arrived in the middle of a velociraptor den and she had to fight the raptors for dominance. Who makes a theme park full of dinosaurs?

“It’s so nice to see you!”

A motorcycle appearing out of nowhere isn't something you see every day, even in Halcyon. AJ gapes at it and its passengers until one charges at her. She knocks her assailant aside and falls into a fighting stance, ready to lightning away if the other one also attacks. The way they seemed to think they knew her made her decide to stay and try for more information.

"Who the hell are you, and how do you know who I am?" AJ demands, looking between the two.

Tay flails in the air as she gets knocked aside, not expecting the blow. She lands on all fours, her fangs and boots digging into the ground.

“Whoa! Hey, um, it’s Tay? And Ellen? You know, your friends?” She swipes away a violet forcefield that appeared at her side when she got struck.

AJ narrows her eyes. "I mean, first of all I think I'd recognize a cat girl if I knew one. Second, the only Ellen I know is like, twice your age. And lastly, I don't have friends. Try again." AJ has quick mental images of Bolt and Barbara, but she brushes them aside. She's using them, not making friends. What a ridiculous thought.

Ellen approaches “Atlanta” with careful, slow steps, her hands raised to show that they’re empty. “Alright Sparks McGee, would you chill with the fucking lightning? We’re not trying to jump you,” she snickers at Tay flailing in mid-air, “it’s just nice to see a familiar face.” She palms the visor of her helmet and the whole thing dissipates, vanishing into her jacket. Pushing the hair out of her face, Ellen gives a crooked smile. “Well, sort of.”

AJ looks over Ellen, recognizing her after a moment. She takes a better look at Tay, especially taking in the implants, and crosses her arms. “I would think that a time traveler from the future would be older than our Ellen, not younger.”

“Who the fuck said we were from the future? I mean, this one jump we probably are, but technically we left from ‘93. Ugh, that’s not even the point.” She looks at Tay and shrugs before returning her attention to Not-lanta. “Guess we made it to another universe after all, Tay! How do we know each other in this one?”

Tay pouts, tail flicking. "I am NOT a catgirl! I'm a vampire who happens to be part cat." She looks at AJ more closely. "Oh dang you actually are a different Atlanta. That's awesome. What's your deal?"

"Your *clothes* say you're from the future, babe." AJ points at Ellen. "And the you here gives me jobs sometimes. But you're like, older. You, on the other hand," AJ looks at Tay again, "I have never met."

Reasonably certain that these two weren't going to attack now, AJ clasps her hands behind her back and walks a slow circle around Tay. She stops next to her and rests a hand on her shoulder. It would have looked smooth if she was taller, but the effect is greatly lessened by AJ's height. "How is 'a vampire who is part cat' any different from a cat girl? And also," she leans up, like she's going to tell Tay a secret, but doesn't lower her voice, "don't fucking call me Atlanta. I'm AJ."

Tay blinks, slowly. “Whoa.” She grins. “A swear. Alright, AJ.” She shares a look with Ellen over AJ’s shoulder.

Ellen has put her helmet back on to hide her face, but Tay can hear her stifled laughter through their communicators. After taking a minute to recompose herself, she rejoins the conversation.

“Alright, AJ, we’ll leave you to… whatever the fuck you were doing,” Ellen reaches through two portals to grab the handlebars of the bike, wheeling it towards them, “but we’ve got places to go and stuff to do. Say 'hi' to old me!” Ellen mocks with her most sickeningly cheerful voice as the bike finally reaches them.

Tay laughs and runs towards the bike. As she turns around and waves, the cloak turns invisible again, and an unseen Tay jumps on the back.

AJ’s mouth drops open when she sees the portals, too surprised to even take offense at Ellen’s tone. As Tay goes invisible, she holds out a hand. “Wait! You said you were friends with a different me, right? How would you feel about doing a favor for a friend?”

Ellen and Tay look at each other before turning back to AJ with matching, impish smiles.

“What kind of favor?” They ask in unison.

**Carleton Island, the C-verse, March 5th, 2020, 6:44 P.M.**

Carleton Manor is truly a sight to behold. An estate of such grandeur and excess as to make the average person get their guillotine out of deep storage, shrouded behind a small forest of snow-topped birch trees that glint in the soft silver moonlight. A long and winding walkway weaves through the grounds, offering tantalizing glimpses of the house itself: a dark and imposing Victorian manor, all pitched roofs and rich colours and intricate ornamentation, specifically lit to be visible even from these angles. Eventually, the tree line comes to an abrupt stop around the cobbled front courtyard and, up a set of carved stone steps, the wooden double doors tower before arriving guests. A withered, almost ghostly, attendant inspects invitations before disappearing them into wisps of lilac smoke and granting entry into the blinding bright interior of what is already being called the high society event of the year.

Or, at least, that’s what they could glean from their entry through side doors and service hallways — who tries to impress their waitstaff, after all. After gaining access to the party in the guise of hired help for the evening, AJ, Ellen, and Tay sneak away from the group of servers holding trays full of drinks and hors d’oeuvres, to find somewhere to begin Phase 2 of their heist plan.

“Y’know,” Ellen says as she smoothes the skirt of her dress, patting down the creases, “if there’s one reliable thing about rich assholes, it’s that they don’t pay attention to the people who work for them.” She drops her hands again to make sure the flared sleeves of her red dress cover her gloves entirely. No way she was going to leave them behind. Not for a heist.

Satisfied with her disguise, Ellen dons the final piece of her outfit: a silver mask that covers the bottom half of her face with strands of shimmering beads. “Here’s hoping they treat their guests the same way.”

Tay laughs as she pulls on a set of sleek, dark dress pants, sliding the fabric — pure black, with a strange iridescence when the light hits it — over her slender grey legs. “Babe, I can’t imagine anyone not paying attention to you in that.” She grins. “I might have to blow our cover to fight them off you.” She turns, looking at the mirror dominating a full half of this abandoned hallway, and pulls out a mask of her own. Where Ellen’s mask has beads, this mask leaves the bottom half of Tay’s face bare, accentuating the predatory set of her jaw. The mask is silver and enameled dark grey, a bare shade darker than her skin so from a distance it is hard to tell which is which. Deep red glass covers the eyes, amplifying the glow from underneath. Iridescent feathers, intentionally frayed to look like they’re taken from a fresh kill, line the sides in a pattern reminiscent of the scruff on the sides of a tiger’s head.

She nods to herself and buttons the deep red half cape, attaching it to the collar of her shirt, which hangs open and unbuttoned over a skin-tight black halter that leaves her stomach bare.

“How do I look?”

*Hot.*

“Hot.”

*Shit. Focus, Ellen. Steal now, drool later.*

“I mean, *I’m* not the one who’s gotta be all sneaky dealing with these fuckin’ security things, whatever the hell they are. The bigger problem is gonna be if people notice *you* too much.” Ellen is suddenly very glad for the mask hiding most of her increasingly red face.

Turning away to look at something, anything, other than her very distracting girlfriend, Ellen searches the dim hallway for AJ. “You never did say where you got these clothes from, AJ. Like what, did you just have ‘em lying around?”

AJ sets her own mask into place and rolls her eyes. *They’re such saps for each other. I’m embarrassed for them.*

AJ’s mask is black filigree, the delicate swirl pattern obscuring the top half of her face, but leaving her mouth and eyes exposed. Her outfit consists of a high-collared black velvet bodysuit and a sheer, long, black skirt. The bodysuit has red embroidery across the torso, on the shoulders, and down the arms, forming the shapes of what AJ has been told are magic sigils. All she knows for sure is that they’re pretty.

“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t need this kind of thing often enough to keep fancy wizard clothes lying around. I borrowed these from you. Well, Ellen. I mean, the older you. The you that belongs here.” AJ pats at her hair, which she’s pulled back into a kind of twist, to get herself to stop the corrections. “But who knows where she got them from. We keep stuff around the base for all kinds of jobs. Now. Do you remember the plan?”

"Oh dang, you look great too!" Tay grins. "Hell yeah I remember. It's got like, maximum three bullet points. You didn't tell us what you were doing."

AJ smirks at the compliment and winks at Tay. “Of course I look great. I have to find the target. Since it was recently acquired, there are several places it could be. But since the host is a pretentious wizard who throws pompous parties, they'll probably have it on display. Gotta show off, you know. If it's not out, it'll be in the vault or the private library. That'll be harder to find, but if you two do your jobs and take out that stupid chandelier, it shouldn't take me too long to find it."

“Great. Super.” Ellen can’t help but be annoyed at being told she doesn’t belong here — it’s been a long time since she last heard that — and the resentment seeps into her voice. “You focus on finding the whatever-it-is, me and Tay can spot trouble. Just try not to get left behind when we leave. C’mon,” she grabs Tay’s hand and starts pulling her towards the party, “it’s party time.”

They exit out into what could be called a ballroom, if a ballroom had fractal patterns of constantly shifting levels. Balustrades hang over dance floors connected by staircases spiraling in impossible directions, leading to seating areas floating through space around bars. Throughout it all, people walk - staff in simple, elegant clothing like the ones they just changed out of, among a crowd of magicians, wizards, witches and warlocks, each dressed more extravagantly than the next. They flow through the room effortlessly, as if the alien landscape was no stranger to them than a hallway.

Tay blinks, looking up at the ceiling far above, where a single, shining crystal chandelier lights up the entire 'room'.

"Well dang, I can see why you'd need help with that."

“Wooooaaah. This is rad!” Ellen’s eyes roam around the enormous space, taking in everything. “Man, I kinda wish we weren’t here doing other shit and could just, like… party, y’know?” She links arms with Tay, trying not to get separated in the crowd just yet. *We’ve got plenty of time to deal with the stupid chandelier in a minute. For now, we deserve to be on a fancy as shit date.* It doesn’t take much to convince herself to let loose and indulge a bit.

“C’mon, we’ll blend in better if we dance our way through.” She spins Tay around her with a playful glint in her eyes.

AJ follows the others in, watching them dance for a moment before continuing to scope out the room; it's time to focus on the mission. One wall of the room is covered in a massive, impractical bookshelf. She knows from experience that it stretches at least thirty feet up, but is an illusion by the time you hit fifty feet. When your aesthetic is opulence, your bookshelf has to reach the ceiling even when the ceiling has been raised for a party. Several of the seating platforms float close enough to it to see the spines, but none are close enough to reach the books.

Winding her way through the crowd, AJ starts nonchalantly scanning over the books. The one she's after is bright gold, it should stick out...

Instead, a tall figure with short blonde hair catches her eye. Alarm courses through her. *Barbara!* AJ weaves around a few more people, and nearly runs into... some other random blonde woman.

"Uh. Sorry. What a crowd, right?" AJ gives the woman her most innocent smile, and heads off.

A few feet away, she stops as she realizes that the overwhelming emotion she's feeling as the adrenaline of thinking she spotted a hero fades is... disappointment? That can't be right. She's not disappointed that Barbara isn't here. She can't be. That's absurd. Barbara being there would be a big wrench in the plan.

"You have a job to do, James. He's counting on you," she mutters firmly to herself. "Stop getting distracted. Why would she be at a wizard party in the first place?"

Pushing the definitely wrong emotions aside, she continues to look for her target.

Tay laughs as Ellen finishes the spin. A mischievous glint appears in her smile, and she immediately launches Ellen into a twirl of her own, starting a complicated dance of twirls that increase in speed and complexity every time.

In the midst of one of these she twists her hand, catching her girlfriend in a dip, the two of them bent forward in the middle of the ballroom. Ellen, face flushed from exertion underneath the mask, pressed against her above the gleaming marble floor. She could feel her heartbeat through the points of contact - her hand on Ellen’s hip, the other intertwined with hers, the press of her knee against the side of Ellen’s leg.

She leaned in closer. The chandelier far above was reflected as pinpricks of light in her brown eyes like a night sky. Their goal.

“We’re here.” She whispers.

Looking up past Tay, which is difficult enough in the first place, the chandelier spins in place high above the room, a collection of gleaming crystals perfectly arranged into a complex geometric cluster. Just barely noticeable through the constantly shifting light, the ceiling around the fixture seems to move as well, rotating ever so slowly with a series of what are probably some kind of magic symbols. The characters flicker as lightning courses through and between the shards of the chandelier.

*These are magic people, what the hell else kinda runes are they gonna use, I guess.*

As she stands up from the dip, Ellen whispers her observations in Tay’s ear. “My best guess? Someone here probably had a hand in setting up the whole lighting situation, so maybe if I can find ‘em and you can get up there we can figure out how to shut it off.”

“If you two can keep your eyes off each other for a few seconds, can I remind you that we have a job to do?” AJ’s voice snaps over the comms.

Ellen rolls her eyes and mutters something about “minding your own business” under her breath and pulls Tay even closer for a moment more.

“Well that was fun for, like, 2 seconds,” she sighs before taking a step back to take a good look at Tay again, “but I guess we should probably do the crime thing now, huh? You go high?”

“Can do.” Tay winks before stepping back, using a change of song as cover to slip away. She weaves between dancers, making her way to the edge of the platform before jumping off.

A tiny bat, unnoticed in the shine and glamour of the ballroom, flies up towards the ceiling.

Seeing the bat fly up, AJ whispers, "Okay that's really cool."

AJ shakes her head and pulls her eyes back toward the books. Not seeing what she needs at floor level, she heads up to one of the seating areas to keep looking.

After seeing Tay off, Ellen makes a small show of limbering up, rolling her shoulders and cracking her neck, as her eyes narrow with analytical focus. *Alright. It’s party time.* She too sets off, making a bee-line for the nearest server collecting a tray of empty glasses and saucers — the poor sap is so busy working that they don’t notice the hand appear in mid-air to relieve them of a champagne flute.

Her “excuse” secured, Ellen changes her pace and path, easing into a tipsy, meandering lilt through the crowd, “accidentally” brushing and bumping into as many people as possible. Just enough contact to check if they know the host or have something to do with the chandelier. She nearly knocks over a small, old woman in a forest green suit and catches a glimpse of a much younger person standing in the center of a slowly spinning circle of sigils looking an awful lot like the ones on the ceiling.

She lunges forward to steady the woman, hands on both shoulders, with all the feigned fluster she can as she waits to see more. On the other end of the communicators, matching earrings for each of them, AJ and Tay hear an assuring “Got you.”

From a floating seating platform, AJ watches Ellen work. *Impressive,* she thinks, *then again, she is Ellen, so I shouldn’t be surprised.*

Her attention is pulled away by a glint of gold on the bookshelf. Tensing, AJ looks over at it, trying to look casual about it but not quite achieving the nonchalance she’s going for. There it is. The book she needs. The gaudy gold spine stands out from the others on the shelf.

“There you are,” AJ whispers, relieved.

“There *who* is?” someone behind her asks.

AJ spins around. Standing there is Casey Collins, decked out in full obnoxious wizard party wear: a delicate gold mask encrusted with what might be real diamonds, and a long red dress with a high gold collar. The slits on the skirt of the dress go all the way up the waistline, and under the skirt are matching lacy red leggings. She’s standing with her arms crossed, looking amused as she quirks up an eyebrow at AJ.

“Talking to yourself is weird, even for a wizard. Unless you have an invisible friend there?”

AJ puts on her best people pleaser smile, hoping the combination of her mask and the fact that she’s not supposed to be here will prevent Casey from recognizing her from school. “I don’t have an invisible friend, no. What brings you up here?”

“The view, obviously. Much easier to look down on people when I'm higher up!” She extends a hand with the back up, like she’s royalty or something. Her smile is that of a person who is used to impressing others. “Casey Collins, I’m sure you’re charmed.”

AJ laughs dutifully. “Not literally, I hope.” Taking Casey’s hand, she bows over it, not breaking eye contact until she kisses it. After standing back up, she holds onto Casey’s hand for a little longer than necessary before letting herself drop it.

Casey’s smile widens, and she grabs AJ’s hand again almost as soon as it lets go of hers. “Um… what are you doing? This is the part where we dance. Duh.” The tone is excited, but the air of condescension has only gotten stronger.

*This is much more fun when it’s...not Casey.* AJ places her free hand over her heart and puts on a mask of regret. “Oh. I’m so sorry, but I’m waiting for someone. I don’t want them to think I’ve abandoned them.”

“Wow, ok, so I guess this is your first party like this?” Casey’s grip tightens, “‘Cause we did the intro, *you kissed my hand*, now we dance. That’s pretty much basic wizard party etiquette, and I can totally get that you’re in awe and overwhelmed, but don’t you worry. Just let me lead. We can even dance by your friend or whatever, if you still want to.” She starts to lead — more like drag, really — AJ toward the steps to a dance floor, surprised by the amount of force she’s having to put into this. *What, did they start inviting randos to these? This year’s newbies are something else.*

AJ runs through a few more excuses in her head as Casey pulls her toward the dance floor, but can’t find one that she thinks the other girl will accept. So she lets Casey pull her down the stairs and onto the dance floor. As they reach the ground level, she risks a glance up at the chandelier to see how Tay is faring.

High, high above, a small grey shape flutters towards the chandelier and bounces off a radiant field, briefly burning. It flaps frantically to get the fire out then doubles back, clambering onto the ceiling a bit away and turning into Tay, who clamps onto the ceiling with Ellen’s gravboots. She walks slowly withershins, counter to the rotation of the magical field, until she reaches a point where the patterns on the ceiling converge.

“In position around the outer defenses.”

“Wow, Althea, I *cannot* believe Artus isn’t taking his studies more seriously! I mean, I haven’t even passed the entry level evaluations yet and even *I* can see how lucky he is to have you as his mentor.” Ellen and her new companion continue their conversation, seated on a long, plush bench. Even though there are other people seated nearby, it’s as if they’re in a world of their own. Ellen takes one of Althea’s hands in both of hers and asks, as earnestly as she can.

“I know this *super* presumptuous of me, but,” she coughs to alert Tay: get ready to move. Ellen’s vision flashes between the old wizard sitting next to her and a very bored looking Artus, far away from the party, not paying attention to the gaps he’s letting form in the barrier spell. “If, after I’ve completed the first pass of exams and Artus is still… ‘lacking enthusiasm’, as you put it, would you take me on as an intern? *Now*, how about that?” The opening in the barrier only lasts a moment. She waits to hear if Tay made it through in time; she struggles to avoid looking up at the ceiling to check.

The moment Ellen says “Now”, there is a brief flicker in the outer barrier as the spell refreshes — enough for someone to power through if, say, that someone is very strong. And has claws.

A swing and a dash later, she crouches on the other side and begins rotating clockwise, counter the second field’s rotation.

“Through.”

Ellen breathes a quick sigh of relief and her shoulders drop, and the rest of her conversation with Althea is a blur. She excuses herself as soon as she can, something about getting a drink or needing to use the washroom, to move on to her next target for the next layer of the barrier. As she stalks across the party, she nearly collides with the wildly spinning couple of AJ and… *isn’t that some chick from school? She’s a wizard? Y’know what, sure. Why the hell not?*

“What happened to ‘eyes on the prize’, Sparks?” Ellen snarks as she chooses from an assortment of tiny foods on a platter.

AJ resists the urge to grit her teeth and glare at Ellen. She has to keep her focus on maintaining a smiling and entranced facade up for Casey. Casey is, admittedly, a decent dancer, and making conversation isn’t really an issue since Casey has barely stopped talking since pulling AJ out onto the dance floor. Neither of those things, however, are going to get her out of this dance without making a scene.

“It’s a beautiful house, Casey,” AJ says as Casey takes a breath, interrupting a tirade about one of Casey’s classmates, who apparently had done something rude yesterday. “This collection of books is something else. All my dad collects is old *VHS* tapes.”

“VHS tapes? The old video things? What the hell does he need those for? I swear, some people just get caught up in the most useless things. Like Tory! You won’t believe who she suddenly decided is worth *all* of her time…” Casey is off on another rant about someone else who has recently slighted her. It’s actually impressive she’s able to keep track of the dance, considering how little attention she’s paying AJ.

That is, until she’s interrupted again, this time by another guest “tripping” and sending his entire drink flying into Casey’s face mid-turn. The music plays on, but everyone immediately surrounding the accident is frozen and hushed. Casey’s face turns as red as her dress; AJ can practically see the steam coming out of her ears. She is released from the dance as a swarm of waitstaff flock to Casey with towels at the ready, hoping the situation won’t escalate.

The situation escalates. Casey lays into the stranger with all the rich girl bully rage in her body, and just like that AJ is the last thing on Casey Collins’ mind.

“Good emergency code word. You’re welcome.” There’s a playful, knowing tone to Ellen’s voice as she winks down at AJ from a higher platform.

Tay continues through the barriers layer by layer, waiting for Ellen's instructions as she gleans information about the spells from the party-goers. They're all different spells meant to keep various other creatures and effects at bay, layered to form a completely impenetrable defense. Unless you know how to break it, of course.

As she makes it through the second to last layer — a cyan-and-yellow mist swirling in a constantly changing pattern, meant to deter vampires, which required her to simulate breathing and a heartbeat — she stops. The chandelier floats in front of her, just one barrier blocking her from touching it.

“Almost done, babe,” Ellen can hear Tay’s breathing through the communicator and wishes she could just give her a hug. “From what I can tell, we’re gonna need to find the host to get through this last one. Just gotta find this guy and then-”

“What was that about finding me?”

Ellen looks over her shoulder to see a tall man with a dazzling smile (literally, light glints off of his teeth as he smiles too widely at her) standing just behind her. His aubergine suit also reflects the light oddly. As Ellen looks closer, it’s shimmering with magic, but it looks like it’s probably for aesthetic purposes? Wizards are weird. It also has a pure gold cape, because why would anyone not go full ham for a wizard party. After getting over the overall a lot-ness of his outfit, Ellen can see the family resemblance between him and the girl who was dancing with AJ.

“Sebastian Collins, the host of the party.” He bows and holds out a hand to shake. “I do hope you’re enjoying yourself?”

“Sure am. Nice to meet you, Sebastian.” Ellen raises her glass to him while shaking with the other hand. On making contact, a flash runs through her head, feeling like it’s nearly blinded her for a moment. She can’t even see anything clearly, it’s like a burst of bright light, but the feeling of being *observed* pervades and sends shivers down her spine. “You sure know how to throw one hell of a party.” She smiles through gritted teeth as beads of sweat start to form on her brow.

Inside her head, alarms are blaring in time to the sparkling of his giant smile. *What the fuck?! Hey, Tay? Babe, this dude has the worst vibes, maybe of all time. Please do that thing where you know what I’m thinking and then fix things! Just make it stop!*

Far above, Tay examines the chandelier. Faint lines crisscross the crystal surface, shimmering with energy, only barely visible even from this close up. There should be a way to render them inoperable, some line that if scratched will pay the whole thing down without much noise-

She shivers, involuntarily.

Her claws are out before she knows what she's doing. The crystal screams with a painfully high, keening noise like the whole thing is vibrating with pain and anger as she tears through it, separating it into pieces with force.

As the light in it dies down, and the noise draws everyone's eyes upwards, the whole thing starts to fall. Shards of crystal embed themselves in the floor around Ellen and Sebastian.

A shadow drifts downwards slowly and lands next to Ellen, turning into Tay. Her mask is cracked, eyes blazing underneath.

She screams in Sebastian's face.

Ellen’s never been so happy to hear an ear piercing shriek in her life. She steps back from Sebastian and spins to cover Tay’s back; can’t leave any angles exposed in the middle of a house full of pissed off wizards. Her gaze jumps from person to person, scanning for someone to make the first move, while under her breath she whispers to AJ in the hopes that at least the mission isn’t totally nerfed.

“Hey Sparks, this would be a great time for you to grab your shit so we can get the fuck out of here.” Ellen hisses through a clenched jaw.

Sebastian scowls at the two as the ambient music comes to a halt. With a flourish of his hands, he pushes his sleeves back, and circular sigils appear in front them as he readies to fight. “You’ll find that thieves are not welcome in my home, Ms. Drummond. Whatever illusion you've used to appear younger can't fool me, I know your tricks. Call off your new pet, come quietly, and I won't have the Consortium take care of her like we usually dispose of vampires."

From back up on the floating platform, AJ watches this unfold. At least five other wizards are making their way to back up Sebastian as others back away. If there’s anything AJ knows, it’s when to run. With the chandelier out of commission, she lightnings over to the book she needs. Holding onto the bookshelf with one hand, she carefully extracts it, opens it to make sure what she needs is inside, and, with a final look down at Tay and Ellen, lightnings away and out of a window, shattering it as she goes.

Ellen’s stomach drops. There are too many things to keep track of. *Where the fuck did AJ just go? Did she just ditch?! Did he know the whole time? Was he watching us this whole goddamn time? And what did he just say about vampires? “Dispose of”, my ass.*

Her eyes flit around the room with every new thought, and with Sebastian’s backup coming she and Tay are running out of options. She grabs and spins Tay behind her, standing defensively between her girlfriend and the smug prick with the highly punchable face.

“Yeah? Get used to being wrong, asshole.”

Tay calms down a bit, the red gleam retreating to the edges of her vision. She keeps low, though, claws at the ready, cloak flowing behind her.

“Just fuckin' try and dispose of me, you pompous dickhead, I’ll rip your fucking throat out.”

“You and your… ‘associates’,” the word drips off his tongue like venom, “always insist on doing things the hard way, don’t you Ellen. Fine then, have it your way.”

The other Consortium wizards finally push their way through the crowd, bursting into the clearing.

A tall woman shrugs off her jacket, revealing toned arms covered in snaking tattoos that jump to life at her command, snaking through the air. A small figure in sweatpants and a hoodie draws sigils in the air and summons a series of eight-foot knights made of fire. A young man in a wizard hat mutters an incantation and his body ripples, muscles breaking through the sleeves of his robes.

Tay jumps into action. She vanishes into thin air, reappearing behind the knights directly in front of the hoodie wizard's face. Two pinpricks of light in the darkness under the hood expand in shock before they get launched through the room. The snakes coil towards her, trying to catch her, but she turns into a bat and flies between.

A hand reaches out and grabs the bat out of the sky before smashing her into the ground. Tay rises out of the crater just in time to catch the fist aimed at her head. The snakes coil around her and constrict.

All at once, the knights swing down their heavy swords, and the scene is lost in smoke and fire.

Ellen tries to run to Tay’s defense, but her boots are on Tay’s feet and without them Ellen’s mobility is severely hampered. She’s caught in mid-air — the glowing sigil on her neck matching one on Sebastian’s hand — and lifted, grasping for breath, off the ground.

“Falling for the same trick twice? Pathetic. You should have cooperated while it was still an option.”

Ellen throws a fist at Sebastian with a portal appearing next to his head, but he easily catches her punch with his free hand; being choked takes a lot out of a person. Her remaining hand starts to appear randomly here and there in and around the fight, on the floor or occasionally bumping into people, struggling to find something. She manages to weakly call out “Tay…” as Ellen feels the last of her breath on its way out.

When she feels like she’s far enough away, AJ lands. She lets out a sigh and leans against a tree, clutching the book to her chest. She did it. Opening the book, she pulls out what she came there for and tosses the book on the ground. Jasper would be so excited that she got it back. AJ tucks it into one of her pouches.

Smiling, she pushes herself back upright and stretches her arms above her head, ready to take off again. As she does, she can just see the top of Sebastian Collins’s mansion over the trees. AJ hesitates, but she shakes her head and turns her back on the mansion.

“What are you doing, James? You know they were in it just for the excitement. And they’re getting that... they weren’t there for *you*, or even some other version of you. They wouldn’t hesitate to leave you behind. That’s not how this works. You’re meeting Jasper tomorrow with a clear conscience.”

AJ nods firmly. There’s no point in going back for strangers. There’s no room in this life for attachments. AJ takes three more steps before groaning and hitting a tree.

“What a fucking time to develop feelings.”

In a flash of lightning, AJ is in the air, headed away from the manor. But she banks, gaining speed, and bee-lines for the manor.

"Hands off my girlfriend, you creep!"

A deafening roar sounds through the halls. The smoke clears on the scene to show a purple shimmering dome where Tay used to be, remnants of giant greatswords broken upon its surface lying around it.

The barrier shatters. A small figure hits Sebastian from the side, sending him flying through the air. It catches Ellen and lands before the shadows fade to reveal Carmilla.

"E? Babe are you okay? Please wake up we have to get out of here," She says, brushing Ellen's hair out of her eyes. Around her, wizards advance as Sebastian levitates back and lands. "We're pretty surrounded and I can't do this without you."

Ellen sputters as she finds air again, taking deep heaving breaths and clutching onto Tay, and looks up at her girlfriend with stars in her eyes.

“Saved me again, huh? My hero.” Any amount of cool she’d been hoping for is ruined by weak coughs, and Ellen rubs at the sore part of her neck. Tay helps her back to her feet and the pair stand back to back again, hands held tight and staring daggers at their opponents.

“We’ll get outta this; not like it’s the first time we’ve been surrounded by a bunch of people tryna kill us, right? Just you and me.” Ellen smiles at Tay and squeezes her hand a little harder. She can’t help but glance, with disappointment, at the broken window.

Tay smiles back, trying to appear confident. A faint wisp of smoke drifts from her cheek, where one of the wizards’ attacks left a small burn.

They turn towards the people surrounding them and assume fighting stances.

The scent of ozone fills the air, and everyone's hair stands a little on end. Some of the wizards hesitate, since they know what's coming. Sebastian's eyes in particular go to the broken window and he raises a hand to throw up a spell, but he's too late. A bolt of lightning breaks through another window, scattering glass harmlessly on the party-goers huddled away from the fight. The force of AJ hitting the ground — in a three point landing, of course — knocks back hoodie guy and muscle wizard. Lightning wreathes her body, and she stands.

"Ah, the sparky brat is back. Ellen does love her pack of scapegoat children," Sebastian sneers. The magic sigils around his hands flare, and he shoots a beam of magic at AJ.

The bolt hits AJ's outstretched hand, and she absorbs the magic. The lighting around her tinges slightly purple.

"Oh, shut up, Sebastian." AJ's voice crackles as she speaks, and she holds out both hands.

The energy of the room shifts. The wizards close by the three almost immediately start to slump. The radius of affected people ripples outward from AJ. A few of the less sturdy people drop right away, but no one aside from Ellen and Tay is unaffected as AJ begins to absorb the energy from everyone in the room.

"I'd say now is a good time to run, kitten," AJ says. Her posture looks confident, but the strain is evident in her voice.

“Took you long enough,” Tay says, glaring at her. “What did you do, stop for coffee?” She grabs Ellen’s hand and starts running back to the entrance, not looking back to see if AJ follows.

Ellen, on the other hand, keeps trying to sneak peeks back as she is pulled away by Tay. As the radius of fallen people widens, she can’t help but laugh, remarking to Tay, “Remember when we used to joke about an evil Atlanta? I feel like that’s gonna be real hard movin’ forward.”

She cackles as they continue in their escape, dashing through the light dusting of snow on the ground, towards the edge of the island. Tay unclasps her cape and hands it to Ellen, who smiles with understanding and anticipation. She buttons the cape around her own neck as it lengthens and begins to fade from the bottom up.

Hands held tight, Tay shrinks into her bat form and takes off into the night sky, carrying a now-invisible Ellen through the air. The little bat cheeps a few times and Ellen rolls her eyes in response. “I know, I know, but c’mon! She’s gonna get there before us, I just figured you’d want a head start!” A few more agitated chirps and Ellen cedes.

“Alright, Sparks. We’re clear. Thanks for the out, AJ,” she radios to AJ and mocks a two-finger salute in the direction of the mansion before dropping her earring into the bay.

**Little Camelot Park,** **Halcyon City, the C-verse, March 6th, 2020, 1:35 A.M.**

In the darkness of the park, a bat flies towards a tree next to a rock that, in another universe, has a rather famous sword stuck in it. In this one, however, it is just a rock in a park; no more or less notable than any other. The tree, however, has a person under it, leaning in a nonchalant way as if to convey to any viewers that she's been waiting for a while.

The bat's cargo becomes visible, shrugging off her cloak, as Ellen drops the last few feet to the ground. The bat turns into Tay, who smoothly transitions from flying into walking as she approaches AJ with an accusing finger.

"What the fuck was that? Where were you?"

AJ shrugs, not moving. As Tay approaches, she can tell that AJ's posture is a little less nonchalant than it seemed from a distance. "What does it matter? I came back for you. You're lucky I bothered. If you can't get yourselves out of a heist, you're more of a liability than anything."

Tay bristles, her hair poofing slightly as her tail stands on end. "What?! *You're* the one who asked for *our* help, remember? And look we might be very strong but there's some vulnerabilities that come with vampirism that-" She sniffs and pulls a face. "Hold on, are you sick?"

A disembodied hand grabs AJ’s shoulder and spins her to face Ellen and Tay; they can practically see the green in her face.

“Fuckin’- what the hell happened to you, dude? One second you’re wiping a room full of people, the next you look like you just ate too much Hallowe’en candy. What gives?” Tay and Ellen’s expressions shift from angry to confused and concerned in a heartbeat; it’s especially hard seeing this face in pain, even if she was a piece of shit to them just a few minutes prior.

"What, no I'm *fine*." AJ jerks away from Ellen's grip, but has to steady herself on the tree in order to not fall down. She glances up at the other two, as if she's hoping there was a way they hadn't seen that. Their expressions aren't what she was expecting. *Right, they were friends with a different you. A likable one, probably.* AJ crosses her arms and leans against the tree like she's being cool, but she's more scared that she'll fall over without the support. "Listen, absorbing that much energy isn't fun. But I'm *fine.*"

Ellen and Tay exchange a look, each with one eyebrow raised in disbelief, before they both face AJ again. “We’ve got time to drop her home before we leave, right?” Ellen asks Tay, already hoisting the bike up onto her shoulder.

Tay nods. She turns to the other girl and beckons her over. “Come on, we’ll drop you off. You look like you’d explode if you set another step. We’ll carry you.”

“You’re still on Buchanan, right? I mean, I can check if you don’t wanna tell us, or you could just *not* be difficult about this. I think you owe us that at this point.” Ellen considers hiding the bike with Tay’s cape for a second but holds back; it looks way funnier this way.

"What? You don't need to *carry* me, I said I'm fine." AJ releases her hold on the tree to cross her arms. She clenches her jaw and pretends she's definitely not wobbling. "There's no point in being nice to me. What do you want?"

Tay laughs. “Holy fuck, are you always this obstinate? You’re *clearly* not fine. You don’t need to think of us as friends if it hurts your fucking… villainous pride or whatever, just think of it as a little bridal carry between people doing a heist together. Strictly business.” She picks AJ up, turning to Ellen.

“Jesus Christ, I half wish Boon was here just to make this go faster. We’re still here arguing about carrying, like idiots.” Ellen starts in the direction of where she knows the James family apartment to be. “Where is she, anyway? You two aren’t always together here, or would that not look *eeeevilllll* enough for you?”

AJ crosses her arms but doesn’t otherwise protest being carried. She barely got to the park, and spending the night in the park in the cold isn’t exactly an appealing prospect. “Who the hell is Boon?”

Tay boggles at the girl in her arms. “Boon? Barbara? Big, blonde, muscular, very pretty, Valkyrie in training? Don’t tell me you don’t even *know* her here. I can believe not knowing me, I’m probably dead, but *BOON*?” She shakes her head. “Unbelievable.”

"Oh, Barbara! She's called Boon where you're from? That's dope. Honestly, that's such a cool villain name. Glad to hear that she's come to her senses in your timeline." AJ smirks. "She nearly ruined a museum heist for me a while back. It was a good time." AJ's smile gets a little more wistful for a moment before her eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Wait, there are evil Valkyries?"

Ellen stops in her tracks and looks at Tay with wide eyes. “Yeah, so about that… there aren’t? Ok, well maybe somewhere there are, we don’t fuckin’ know every Valkyrie or anything, but Boon is one of the good ones.”

She turns to hide the grin creeping onto her face, “and so are you.”

“What are you talking about? I’m a Valkyrie there?” AJ raises an eyebrow. “Seems unlikely. Just about as unlikely as the other interpretation to that sentence, that I’m a hero there?” AJ thinks about it for a moment, then laughs. “I didn’t know you were also comedians. Good one. I almost bought it for a second.”

“Oh, no, definitely. You’re a hero there, and dating Boon, and you own a cupcake store, and we’re all best friends, and you’re a Valkyrie and also a demon and a professor of economics. You’re the world’s first Valkyrie-demon-economist triple major, it’s amazing. It’s in the Guinness Book of Records and everything.” Tay grins.

Ellen doesn’t even try to hide her laughter anymore.

AJ giggles. She tries to hold it back, but there’s something about these two. “I’ve never made a cupcake in my life.” After a short pause, she quietly says, “Imagine dating Barbara though…”

“Ok, so that’s Boon, who else ya got here? Mel? Uh… both of them, I guess… Aman, Ernest?” Ellen starts listing off names just to hear about what their counterparts are like.

“Oh, Bolt works with me and Ellen. Dork. But very excited about crime, so,” AJ shrugs, but her tone about Bolt has an undertone of affection. “Another Mel? Like Melody? She keeps to herself. All gruff and loner type. Fun to flirt with, mostly because she’s incredibly oblivious. Don’t know an Aman. Ernie’s on Big Team. Angstiest boy I’ve *ever* met. Drama Queen extraordinaire. I’m working on recruiting him. Turning him against his brother is going to be remarkably easy, but you’ve gotta work slowly, you know?”

“*ERNIE*?” Tay exclaims, bursting into laughter. “Motherfucking *Ernie*? Oh, that’s amazing. He’s going to hate that.” They speak as they walk through dark streets, both familiar and unfamiliar. Tay spots many landmarks she’s familiar with, but most are subtly different: stores with different names, cafes with different themes, streets with different houses. Still, it’s enough to allow them to navigate without issue. Mostly — AJ has to correct them a few times.

Still, though, they get where they’re going.

“Think you can manage getting upstairs on your own? I’m guessing he doesn’t know us, but I still can’t imagine Noah’d be too happy to see us,” Ellen asks as they arrive at the apartment building.

“Yeah, I can sneak in through the wires.” AJ holds onto Tay’s arm as she’s set down, steadying herself for longer than necessary. “I’ll need those outfits back, though. I don’t want to have to explain to Ellen that I used resources for an unauthorized heist.”

Tay looks at Ellen. She *liked* this outfit. Besides, AJ’s a villain, right? They just stole a thing? She’ll understand. She nods at her girlfriend, then turns back to AJ.

“First, can I give you a hug? I know you’re not the you we know, but… we haven’t seen you in almost two years.” She does her best to look sad, which, to her surprise, comes easily — she does really miss Atlanta.

“Uh. Sure?” AJ narrows her eyes at Tay, but can’t think of a nefarious reason behind the request. And maybe, you know, she does want a hug. So she kinda awkwardly opens up her arms like this isn’t something she does very often.

Ellen starts backing away slowly after Tay’s signal, putting down and starting up the bike while Tay says her goodbyes to AJ. It takes her a minute to arrange her dress so that it’s not in the way, but by the time the hug ends, the overclock has been set and their next destination awaits.

Tay holds on for, maybe, a bit longer than necessary, feeling the warmth of her friend’s alternate self. Despite the differences, she smells the same, and though this version of her seems unused to this sort of thing - stiff, muscles tense - it still feels the same.

She pulls back, giving AJ a very sincere smile.

Then she turns and jumps on the bike, which immediately starts driving off.

“Hahahahaaaa, psych!! I tricked you with *FRIENDSHIP*! See ya!”

“Say hi to Jasper for ussssss!” Ellen shouts over the roar of the engine as she and Tay drive off into the night. A few moments later, there’s a distant screeching of tires and then silence.

“HEY!” AJ shouts after them, but she isn’t really in a state to give chase. She watches them go, then whispers, “Well, shit. That’s what you get for trusting people, James.”

AJ makes her way over to the power box, and lightings her way through the wires and into her room. Shuffling from the kitchen means Noah is there, so she quickly changes into her pajamas and hides the dress. Figuring out what to tell Ellen is another day’s problem. After collapsing onto her bed, she holds up the pouch with her prize inside. Gently, she pulls a beat-up sketchbook out of it. J. James is written in childish cursive on the cover. AJ pulls out her phone and snaps a picture.