I took as deep a breath as I could, which felt quite odd in the absence of an abdomen. Neither Lou nor I had anything resembling functional body parts outside of our brains, hearts, and lungs.

And I unquestionably did not have enough strength to put us both back together. Honestly, I wasn’t entirely sure I had strength to even put one of us back together.

Making things even better, I wasn’t sure how long we had until the soldiers recovered from shock. They almost certainly wanted to kill me - as payback, if nothing else.

I had to survive. Lou had to survive. Either the soldiers had to be killed, or we had to escape. I strongly preferred escape, though I supposed it brought up the question of where we were escaping to. The base was still taken over.

Lou had stopped questioning me - probably realizing I was in no condition to answer - and just settled into her contorted pile of flesh with a thoroughly unhappy sigh.

How was I getting out of this mess?

Moments passed as I tried to think of ways to heal myself or Lou. As damaged as I was, it’d probably be easier to shapeshift into Comet than try to heal myself, but that’d still strain me to the limit, leaving nothing left for saving Lou.

Another idea occurred to me and I groaned. It’d work, but… Lou was going to kill me.

Hans’ corpse was right next to us both. Aside from the issue of him being dead, and his throat having been removed, he was in perfect health.

I reached out with my magic and repaired his throat, then restarted his heart and ordered the muscles of his chest to rise. Oxygenated blood began to flow. I realized belatedly that he hadn’t finished dying - it hadn’t been long enough for brain death.

It felt like murder, cutting off the blood flow to the brain. A small burst of Flamus dropped my near-corpse onto his chest. I suppressed his immune system, and then connected his carotid artery to mine, and then our jugular veins. With blood flow established, it was then safe to finish the swap. Within two minutes, my head and neck were on top of his shoulders, and his head was on the ground next to my cooling corpse. My myriad enchantments were moved from behind my heart to the matching area behind his. I repaired my mouth as the finishing touch.

I took a deep breath, and the relief was intense. The “sensation” of nothingness, from destroyed nerves, was deeply unsettling. And even a few minutes without things like a liver, kidneys, etc, did bad things for blood quality. Without the discomfort holding me back, my head swam, as though trying to fall asleep against my will. I pushed against it, calling on fear - fear that Lou would die - to keep me awake.

Lou had been making deeply unsettled noises, involving an impressive amount of cursing, even for her, during this process.

“Okay,” I said, testing out my voice. It felt more or less normal.

I turned my head towards Lou, not bothering to try to sit up.

“I’m sorry, Lou, for… everything, really. I’m sorry I’m not stronger. Not strong enough to have done better. But I can’t heal you, or me. I’m too exhausted.”

“So you took over a corpse,” she said flatly. “That’s your fucking solution.”

“Yes,” I said. “He was barely dead - it took almost no magic to get his body going. I can attach you, too.”

“What,” she said, so flatly it didn’t remotely sound like a question.

“It’d be cramped, but I can add your neck to his shoulders,” I said. “It’d keep us alive long enough to recover and more or less rebuild our bodies from scratch.”

She closed her eyes. While she didn’t speak, I saw her lips move in familiar patterns. I was pretty sure she was cursing me soundly.

“I’m guessing, it’s that or death,” she said after a minute.

“Yes, and we might still die, even with it,” I admitted. “We’d have to find the strength to get a vehicle and drive away. And then… I don’t know.”

“How long can we live as a freaky corpse monster?” she asked. “Forever, if needed?”

“Er… no,” I said.

The immune system would destroy our brains if I didn’t stop it; and if I did stop it, which I had to, disease was going to be a severe threat. I remembered the strange fact that disease was everywhere, and we were always hours from death, if ever our bodies completely surrendered their fight. Blending bodies together had, in fact, been my training on that body system. I’d forgotten the more complex options - how to allow the body to fight disease, without fighting the foreign flesh I’d fused - but at least I remembered how to turn off the system entirely.

“It’s complicated,” I said, deciding to sidestep explaining all of that. “But I’d need to make an enchantment to stabilize it, and even then, it’d be difficult and risky. As long as I’m awake, I can handle the problems, but sleeping… well, problems could sneak up on us.”

“And you’ve got to sleep before you can make the enchantment,” she said.

“Right,” I said.

“Tell me straight,” she said. “What are our chances of surviving, if we do this?”

“It depends,” I said. “It depends on so many things. For instance, how soon I can rest. If things go well, then survival is almost certain.”

She sighed and closed her eyes.

“I… don’t want to die,” she admitted quietly, like she was confessing a great and terrible sin.

“Then I won’t let you,” I said and sat up, moving next to her.

My body felt strange, obviously, but I ignored the oddities as I grabbed Lou’s light torso. I held her back to my chest and within five minutes, she and I were awkwardly side by side on the top, each head pointing out at an uncomfortable angle. Lou’s mouth moved, as though she were trying to speak, which reminded me that I hadn’t given her access to any body functions.

“I have an idea,” I said, and she scowled. “How about I give you control over the body? I can make speech happen either way.”

She had control over her neck, so bobbed her head in a vague approximation of a nod. I redirected some nerves and found myself in the startlingly uncomfortable position of being able to feel a body that I had no control over.

By then, a few of the soldiers seemed to be starting to recover enough to start moving in ways that suggested purposefulness and consciousness.

Lou stretched out her arms and legs, feeling herself all over, getting a sense of the body. “This is fucking weird,” she muttered. “Okay, so the plan is to grab the jeep and get back to the base?”

I opened a hole in the bottom of my neck and used Aeros to flow air into it, to let my vocal cords work.

“Maybe?” I said, my voice sounding breathy. I toned down the airflow. “Maybe telling them what happened over the radio’s a better start. They might surrender, if they know the base is down and we’re coming back.”

“Right,” she said, sounding annoyed. “Right, them, damn it, I’m still not thinking straight.”

She took another deep breath, collected the jeep’s keys from her corpse, and then started jogging to the jeep. Our necks were not designed to sustain our heads at this angle, and I debated whether or not it was worth using some of my last scraps of magic for what amounted to improved comfort.

By the time I almost gave in to the temptation, we’d arrived at the jeep. Once we got going, I wasn’t afraid for Lou’s life anymore, which left me struggling against passing out.

“Lou…” I said, exhaustion obvious in my voice.

“Yeah, you sleep, but first,” she said, and scowled. “What problems should I keep an eye out for, to wake you up over?”

“Anything remotely feeling like disease,” I said. “Body aches, unusual fatigue, a rash, a headache, anything. The sooner I know, the better - it could become lethal surprisingly fast.”

“Got it,” she said. “I’ll slap the shit out of you if I have to. Sleep as best as you…”

I didn’t even hear the rest of her sentence. As soon as I stopped fighting it, exhaustion claimed me.

I’d only just closed my eyes, but Lou was shaking my face aggressively. Why was she so cruel…?

An infection had taken hold, and we had a rash. It took a bit of violence on Lou’s part to force my brain into being awake enough to do something about it, but we got through it. And we got through the one after that.

I wasn’t conscious for any of the negotiations. Lou let me know how things went, in the brief moments I resisted the lure of rest to keep us alive. The Germans surrendered, once they had a chance to confirm that the base was overtaken. The American base took them prisoner, and they were treated fairly.

We made it to the base shortly before dawn. We were given a sterile room to rest in, observed by army doctors, and I finished the preparations by wiping out all the viruses and bacteria my spells could find. We slept, and finally were able to get enough rest.

I got my own body back the next day. Since I had a detailed “copy” stored in my shapeshifting enchantment, I was able to build it perfectly out of some food that the army provided. After making sure the heart and organs were all working correctly, I moved my head onto the body, and was fine.

For Lou, though, it wasn’t so easy. I didn’t have a copy of her body to use, after all. Her corpse was scavenged from the German base, giving me a solid start, but it was in bad shape to begin with, and had no limbs at all. She stayed in Hans’ body only for the first day, as the haphazard reconstruction of her body wasn’t any worse than Hans’.

I had to use my own body as the baseline for building the missing parts. It was incredibly difficult. If I made it too much like me, then it would set her immune system off. I had to make her cells be “hers,” based on the innards of her head, and yet, use it to build legs and such. I used doctors that the army provided, using their insights, observations, and suggestions to help make sure I didn’t screw anything up.

She was still in fragile health, with a monitoring enchantment to keep her safe, when we went to Nicholas’s funeral. I got to see his little girl. I wasn’t allowed to speak to her, or his wife, because of security reasons, but I wouldn’t have been able to say anything anyway.

It turns out that being able to cry is necessary, at times.

It was a hard week. Despite technically succeeding, no one was happy. Well, aside from the masses - America as a whole was pleased with defeating the incursion, since they didn’t know the details.

Lou stopped talking to me, and could barely meet my eyes.

Slick was glad that Lou was alive, but he’d seen our monstrous, two headed form. Even after her body was fixed, he had a hard time looking at her. They agreed to never tell Alice what it had taken to save her, since Alice wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Liam was wonderful, as usual. He’d turned pale at seeing our multi-body form, but when Lou had explained the necessity of it, he’d taken it in stride. People die all the time, he’d said, and there had been plenty of times that he’d wished for something, anything, no matter how monstrous, to keep people alive. He was glad I’d had that option, and said he’d have done the same.

Lou stopped talking to him for a bit, too, after that.

Albert was glad we were alive, glad we’d succeeded, though he was nervous about what came next.

General Richardson was… pleased, I guess, at the win. But the hostility he felt towards me had increased enormously. Lieutenant Pash was in custody, and Richardson said I wasn’t allowed to see him. I wasn’t sure how long I’d tolerate that, but I was too busy with fixing Lou’s body to pay it much attention.

I knew, even in the midst of it, that I was letting myself be distracted. Still, keeping Lou alive was important, and I already knew what was next. My parents would technically cooperate with Germany, but they’d drag their feet about it, and so I could afford a bit of delay.

There were just a few things I had to do first.

“Lieutenant Mikhail Pash,” I said formally, as I sat in the chair across from him.

He looked resigned. Richardson hadn’t taken my pressure about seeing Pash well, but he’d caved eventually. Mostly because I told him that he’d either cooperate, or clean up the mess when I got there by force.

“Miss Aera Koryn,” Pash replied, sounding equally formal.

“Tell me what your plan was,” I said.

“Please forgive my concern, Ms. Koryn, but I am wary of saying anything in this room, as it is being recorded,” he said cautiously.

“Because you want to give a different story to me than the one you give to America,” I said coldly.

He sighed.

“This is a good country,” he said, his voice low. “But nothing is perfect. I have been better positioned than you to see the imperfections.”

“If you imagine that I’ve emerged from this with a belief that America can do no wrong, then you’re even more insane than I thought,” I retorted.

His lip twitched in a faint smile.

“Not at all,” he said. “Rather, I merely say that I am familiar with imperfections that you have not had the chance to observe.”

“That’s fair, I guess,” I said. “But what does that have to do with this?”

He had a pained look pass over his features, then said, “What America strives for, and what individuals with power in the country occasionally decide to do, do not necessarily overlap. Tell me, Ms. Koryn - if I serve the true interests of the country, by means of defying those who have power over me, am I guilty of treason?”

I frowned, but thought it over briefly.

“No,” I decided.

“Those who have said power would disagree,” he said. “Not that I have done any such thing, of course.”

I stifled a chuckle. He was very clearly lying, with that last bit. Opaque though he usually was, he wanted me to see that it was a lie, and so I saw the intention.

“Fine,” I said, and surrounded us with a bubble of distortion. “No one can see or hear us clearly, now.”

“They will attempt to come inside,” he pointed out.

I chuckled and merged the metal of the door, so that it couldn’t open.

“I’d be impressed if they got through now,” I said.

He leaned forward, an intent look on his face. “Do you recall the letter I sent you after you had the restraining order placed on me?”

“Of course,” I said, frowning again. He’d invited me to work with him to make the world a better place, saying my natural place was in charge of others.

“General Richardson has a plan in place to kill you, Mr. Williams, and Lieutenant O’Brien,” he said, and I reeled back in shock. “With knowledge of a possible backup portal in Germany, he can’t afford to kill you or them yet. As soon as he gets word of your final success, he will action that plan.”

I swallowed. Part of me wanted it to be false, but with what I’d seen in Richardson’s spirit… no. It was the truth.

“He wants to wipe out magic,” I said.

“You understand why, I’m sure,” he said, and I sighed, nodding. “I still believe what I told you then, Aera. Not everyone agrees. But there are many types of evil in the world, and some of them can only be fixed by your power.”

There was a glimmer of something from his spirit, that caught my attention.

“That’s the key to you, isn’t it?” I asked softly. “The thing that’s driving you, that’s driven you from the start. What ‘evil’ have you been wanting me to fix?”

His face was cold and he closed his eyes.

“In every government, there are people like Richardson who mean well and make terrible choices. I have been trying to change the world balance, in what ways I can, to prevent those spots of idiocy from harming the future.”

“And that’s why you killed Nicholas,” I said, my own voice cold.

He frowned, looking mildly angry.

“I misjudged you,” he said. “I did not wish for him to die. From what we’ve discussed, I was absolutely certain that you would not leave a friend behind to his death, and absolutely certain that it would not be beyond your ability to heal.”

“Same as you were certain the Irish Mob’s attack on my house would leave no one permanently harmed,” I said coolly.

He let out a slow breath and then nodded.

“And the butcher shop?” I asked.

“An unforeseen disaster,” he said. “You had demonstrated a refusal to escalate or to initiate conflict. To reveal yourself. I had no way to guess that you would take such a direct action.”

I rubbed at my eyes.

“Let me guess,” I said, my voice scarcely audible. “Every misjudgement was because you didn’t understand the balance between my choices, and the choices of those I let control me.”

He nodded again.

“I admit to my own bias,” he said. “I initially believed that, with your power, you would refuse to be controlled. I believed your actions were because of your preferences, not theirs. Later, I misjudged, because I believed your moral values would be stronger than Lou’s recommendation.”

“You were right,” I said, leaning back. “It was only because Lou got me to give my oath, to obey her, if it came down to it.”

“I confess I do not understand why you gave that oath,” he said cautiously.

“Because I’m twenty two years old,” I said, leaning my head back, too. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m scared I’ll make things worse. I don’t know who to trust, and it was the condition given of one of the only people I know who seems trustworthy, and who was willing to support me.”

He was silent for a long moment, looking at me appraisingly.

“I misjudged, Aera, and for it, my life is over,” he said quietly. “For treason, they may execute me, or they may imprison me for the remainder. My wife is dead, my daughter was crippled from polio, and as it stands, there is no hope for her.”

I sat upright again and gave him a curious look. For the first time in my adult life, I was in a situation that actually was like the ones my parents had trained me for. Pash was offering me his service, possibly for life. He’d told me what he wanted, and what a person wants is what controls them.

“Why did you work with the Germans?” I asked.

“Working with merely one person or organization has its limits,” he said dryly. “Being a double or triple agent is risky, but allows for the broadest possible perspective, the greatest likelihood of both perceiving the truth of a situation, as well as influencing it. I worked with the Germans originally as part of those standard efforts, and they believed me because I have a history with them.”

“Spying on the united states to them,” I said, to clarify.

“Yes,” he said. “Ultimately information of little worth, but enough to earn their trust. When I realized what they were working on, I knew you had to speak with them - ordinary opposition would not end well, in the long run, for any party. However, I also knew that General Richardson would have never permitted any chance of your cooperation with them.”

“Because he doesn’t want magic in the world,” I said.

“That, yes, but also because he sees you as a monster,” he said. “An unpredictable monster may choose to join with Hitler in taking over the world. He can not see past his own biases and fears.”

“So you conspired to create a way for that conversation to happen outside of Richardson’s view, in a way that would ideally have zero casualties,” I said, contemplative.

He nodded and said, “Yet, I misjudged, and for it, many people died.”

“What did you expect the result of the encounter with my mother to be?” I asked.

“I didn’t know it was your mother, though I had suspicions in that general direction,” he said. “I expected you to convince her to betray the Germans. I expected you, with their help, to be able to immediately disable the German base. If you had gone along with my request to speak with them, I would have been involved in the discussion, able to influence it, and had other plans on how to handle contingencies. Unfortunately, since I misjudged and failed to bring you in, the Germans deemed me not useful enough to have present.”

He’d judged everything correctly… except he didn’t realize the social power of oaths, in my world, that such a thing would be expected to be greater than the bonds of family.

I heard the question in his voice, even if he didn’t quite ask.

“There was something you didn’t know,” I said by way of answer. “You judged correctly, otherwise.”

His curiosity wasn’t quite sated, obviously, but his posture relaxed marginally.

“You’ve manipulated me aggressively from the start, with lies, death, and even treason,” I said harshly.

“I used the power I had available to the best of my ability,” he said, completely unashamed.

“Don’t the means themselves matter?” I asked. “If you use evil, doesn’t that mean something?”

“Had I followed the law, I would not have been permitted to tell you Richardson’s plans to kill you and yours,” he said calmly. “Would you have preferred that?”

I scowled at him.

“Those who follow the law are subject to those who don’t,” he continued. “If being a good man means standing aside while people like Richardson allow their fears to destroy something so incredible, then I won’t be a good man.”

“You can be good without obeying laws,” I said.

“Not everyone would agree with that,” he said. “Their view of morality differs from yours, and from mine. I do what I feel is necessary, and no more. Some may call me evil for it, and that is their right to believe.”

I huffed and looked away for a moment.

“How could anyone trust you, with morals that flexible?” I asked. “That’s why my people take oaths so seriously - there must be a line that cannot be crossed, else there can be no trust.”

He seemed to immediately understand what I was really asking.

“I am a simple man, in the end,” he said calmly. “I seek to make the world better, according to how I see it. I am biased, and heavily so - I favor my daughter’s future over the lives of a million strangers, and make no apology for that. I favor my own life over that of ten thousand strangers. Whoever holds a key to my life and my daughter’s future holds me entirely.”

I nodded slowly and considered. He let me take my time. After a few minutes, I reached out to him with my magic, with a trick my father had shown me once.

“I have given you brain cancer,” I told him. “You will show symptoms in approximately a week, and it will kill you in a month or two. I will repair it every few days, as long as you remain loyal. I will feel no guilt if you fail me and die, as your murders have already bought your life, so don’t bother trying that angle.”

“Not enough,” he said, and I saw a tight smile appear for a scarce moment. “You will also heal my daughter entirely, and take us both out of the country. You will provide, directly or indirectly, a safe home for her. I have many locations scouted out, and several plans for you to consider, all of which you readily have the means to fulfil. If I die, without betraying you, you will see to her care until she is an adult and able to care for herself.”

I laughed at that, warm and genuine.

“You’ve thought this through, haven’t you?” I asked wryly.

“This was not the plan,” he said dryly. “Nor would I give it so grand a title as a ‘backup plan,’ and only grudgingly ‘a plan of last resort.’ But you will find that I am one who makes preparations and am willing to adapt.”

“Since this is my first time doing something like this, I want to make sure I’m not screwing up,” I said, smiling sheepishly, “Just to confirm, you were offering to serve me, right? I didn’t just give you brain cancer from a misjudgement?”

He chuckled at that, a genuine smile on his face. “Yes, Aera, you judged correctly, and the fact that did not take the time to remove the brain cancer tells me you have accepted my requirements. Further, as far as I can see, you haven’t missed any important details that will cause this to end disastrously.”

“You’ve got a bad track record with those,” I pointed out, and he chuckled again.

“Only with you,” he said, torn between looking amused and mildly irritated. “Now, then, we haven’t much time. Mr. Einstein was provided to you to serve as a potential hostage against your defection. We will need to move quickly, in order to keep him safe.”

“What should we do?” I asked uneasily.

“The first order of business is always the same,” he said. “We must make a plan.”