We made the drive back to the Stadium in relative silence. Everyone in the truck was feeling the tension of the moment. Delmutt gripped her pistol tight, while Yakko, Wacko, and Dot stared out the windows in all directions. For my part, my grip on the steering wheel was white knuckled, enough to set the wounds in my arms aching again. If Haley beats us back, tries to resist the army… I wouldn’t finish the thought. I knew she was the hero. But she’s not invincible.

I decided to correct another mistake I’d made earlier. “Delmutt, what are the names of our three soldiers? I never asked, and I should have. I’m sorry.”

She conferred with them. Their names didn’t strictly translate, without the weird English mapping that Sheriff had received on implantation into my head. But they could come up with a phonetic equivalent. And I would not leave any of my people nameless in my mind, before a potential confrontation. After some debate, they settled on Ayen, Larmutt, and Dainbex. Always two syllables, I noted. A surname system? I could work with that.

We screeched into the stadium in what felt, to me, like record time. The sun was beginning to set, and I could already see the armored vehicles of the Guard convoy parked around the front gates. Several humans were out, engaging with the soldiers. I didn’t see any infomorphs loading into trucks yet. Good, still time. Several soldiers turned and covered us with weapons as we pulled up. I considered briefly having the four disarm, but decided against it. They already consider them deadly threats. Guns may give them a moment’s chance, if it comes to it. But we got out with weapons at rest, for the time being.

How many armed, life-or-death confrontations had I been in, in the last three days? The police, the Jabberwock, the gun store. I was starting to feel somewhat apathetic about men pointing guns at me, and that was an attitude I needed to correct immediately. This was dangerous. These men were all professional soldiers, and they had firepower on those armored turrets that could kill my crew and even Haley in seconds, if it came to that. For now. We had to find some way to send these men off, for at least a few more days. Until that power ramp got us high enough that they couldn’t credibly threaten her anymore. Then we can dictate terms.

Three men were shouting at us, ordering us to lay on the ground, drop our guns, and so on. I had no intention of doing any of that. I ordered the other four to stay behind at the truck, for whatever cover it offered. I kept my hands out to my side, and walked forward slowly. They didn’t shoot me- seemed reluctant to kill a human, for the time being. Good. Bet that’ll change, before too long. I called out. “Take me to your leader? Heh.”

They weren’t buying it. “Shut the fuck up and get on the ground now or I will shoot you dead, sir.” I smiled a bit at that incongruous sir. The others at the stadium had noticed our confrontation, now, and were making further noise at the guards still arguing with them.

I shook my head and kept walking towards them. “Can’t do that, man. You haven’t shot any humans yet, and I’ve got to talk to your boss to keep you from shooting any of the aliens. I’ve got a plan that lets us all walk away tonight without blood on our hands.” Not… strictly true, but I was good at improvisation. Think think think. “Besides, you really don’t want to kill me. I have a feeling the second you really threaten me, my wife’s going to drop in, and she’s about two thousand pounds of scales and teeth these days. You guys can’t have missed that magic is real, right? Any of you been to downtown, yet?”

That gave them pause. So maybe they’d heard rumors, at least. One of them lowered his rifle fractionally. “I recognize your voice. You the guy from those radio broadcasts?”

I put on my friendliest smile and nodded. “Good ear!” Say something in infomorph, Sherriff. “” They started at the unfamiliar noises, then calmed down a bit more. Situation defused?

The man in charge of this clusterfuck, standing over with the stadium crowd, walked towards us. Looked like a captain, if I was reading his bars correctly. I decided to get my name out there. “Captain… Kitchener, is it? Sean McCarthy. Really need to talk to you.”

He nodded but did not move past the three armed men. I noticed, behind him, that one of the APC’s had swiveled its turret around to cover the truck. Oh that’s not a good sign. But he offered no other sign of violence in the moment. He was tall, and a bit gaunt, and looked like he’d had a really shit couple of days, but he didn’t look bloodthirsty. He introduced himself. “Captain Roy Kitchener. If you can speak to these things, we could use your help.”

Be agreeable, Sean. “I can, and they’re not things, they’re just people. They were swapped to our earth, two days ago, and they’re trying to stay alive. We set the stadium up as a refugee camp. In another few weeks my wife will have the resources to take care of them, and maybe set some of this right. I saw what happened… what you did in Blackwood.” He winced, at that. Must be weighing on his conscience, then. “I won’t help you carry that out here. I’d rather die.”

He crossed his arms. Feeling a bit defensive, captain? “This is an emergency situation. Whatever these… people are, they’re not safe. Cities are blacking out all over the country. This is the biggest concentration in Midland, and we’ve been ordered to move them to camps down south. You can make that go a lot easier if you talk to them. Or you can get in the way, and get a lot of them killed. Your call.”

I gestured sharply in negation with one hand. The three covering me with their weapons shuffled a bit nervously. “It’s not my call, it’s theirs. And you aren’t in possession of all the facts, Captain. Have you done any recon downtown? Interviewed any locals?” I could see by the look on his face that he had. He knew what I was getting at. “Then you know about the threat that almost blacked out this city, yesterday. My wife and I stopped it. It has nothing to do with these people.”

He looked uneasy, but not convinced. “We’ve had hundreds of similar reports from downtown but I’m going to need a lot more than rumor to believe that magic talking animals tried to burn everyone to death, or that you stopped them. You got any proof?” Haley’s got the sword, damn.

But I could hear a heavy flap flap flap coming through the twilight sky. I smiled unpleasantly at him. “Yeah, I think I do. Try not to shoot it when it lands.”

Two dragons set down behind me, obscuring line of sight to the truck. Haley was looking a bit bigger- it had only been half a day, but her growth rate was ludicrous. She was easily larger than a horse, by now. She was also injured- really favoring her right side, where it looked like she’d been shot by something and bled quite a bit. Well, join the club- being shot was all the rage now. Still my heart skipped to see my wife injured. Next to her was the real surprise, from my perspective. A much bigger dragon, with a totally different look to it- much more lumbering and barrel chested than the more catlike features that Haley’s form had taken. It was easily bigger than the truck- maybe bigger than one of the armored personnel carriers. It had an almost childlike expression on its face, though- full of curiosity and maybe a little fear at all the men with guns. It opened its mouth and spoke- “Hey! That was a pretty good landing, right?” It was the voice of a young girl.

That helped defuse the tension somewhat but there were still a lot of guns pointing in this direction all of a sudden. Haley walked around her side. “Yeah Skylar, you’ve really improved. Let me talk to these men for a minute, okay? Then we’ll find something to eat.” She made her way over to my side, not quite looming but certainly radiating an aura of… displeasure. I hugged her around the neck and then turned back to my conversation with the men in uniform. They’d backed up a step or two in the face of all of this, but remained remarkably composed.

Their captain spoke first, eyeballing that wound in her side. “You’d uh, you’d be his wife, then?”

She sighed. “Yes. As I’m getting really tired of repeating to people- magic is real, I got turned into a dragon at the same time as all the rest of this madness, and there are more people out there with stranger powers than I have. Some of them were just trying to hunt me. I’m really hoping we got away.”

The captain passed a hand over his face. It had been a long day, I knew the feeling. “Sir, miss, you and… all of your friends need to come with me. We’ll drive you back to the main camp, and-”

Haley shook her head emphatically no, causing spines and fins to sway haphazardly. “Uh-uh. We need to stay mobile. Captain, you don’t understand what’s coming yet. You can’t go pinning all these people up, even if you don’t mean to kill them. You’re just making them a bigger target for whatever comes next. Plus, I kind of think you do mean to kill them.” I nodded in agreement with this last bit. I hadn’t seen anything to convince me of the good intentions of these people.

But… my confidence was starting to fade. “Haley, they’ve got a lot of guns, and we’re not bulletproof. They killed all the infomorphs in our neighborhood, stacked them by the curbs, honey. Let’s just back off, regroup, and see if we can talk to someone higher up tomorrow.” At this point I’d had enough of being shot at and seeing my wife hurt. I wanted out, I wanted downtime. They already had control of the stadium and nothing we did here could change that without adding enormously to the body count and making an enemy we couldn’t afford.

She didn’t acknowledge me. Her eyes and the captain’s were locked. He said, slowly. “Blackwood was… a mistake. I understand your objection and I promise you nobody’s going to die here unless they offer a threat to my people. But they are coming with me. So are you. This isn’t negotiable. If you really are trying to help the most people, we are in the position to do that. We need your translations, but we also need to understand this… magic. We can’t do that if you’re running around.” Translation: you’re dangerous. He held up one hand, and the second APC swivelled its turret in our direction. “Ma’am I do not want to injure you but force is the only coercion I have, right now. My orders are to capture what I don’t understand, and kill it if it resists. Your group meets all those parameters. I will lay down my life if that is what it takes to keep this city safe. Stand down, and prove to us that you are not the threat we fear.”

Compelling. Haley didn’t buy it. “Captain, I’m not sure you are capable of killing me. This hole in my hide was made by a magic arrow fired from a bow summoned, as far as I could tell, by a literal incarnation of God. Your guns are a complication. They are not the monopoly on force that you are used to. I will cooperate with you, from a position of security, so I can help stop the other threats. But I cannot put myself in a cage for you. And if you try to imprison my friends or family, I will fight you. Nobody here has offered violence to anyone in the last two days.” I cringed at that. We have some catching up to do, honey. “They’re just trying to survive. If you are intent on imprisoning them, you are the force that we have to resist.”

I looked back and forth between them. No give in either direction. This was it, then- this was the showdown. She was forcing it too early. We didn’t have the firepower on our side. We had the weight of the lives we wanted to save, but we were all hurt, tired, and flat footed against fresh soldiers. The new dragon was an unknown- why does it sound like a little girl- and frankly, my courage was failing. I didn’t want to die, in a parking lot, because I’d tried to brazen it out against men with guns for the second time in a day. I walked to Haley and put a hand on her neck. “Haley, wife whom I love. Universal advocate calling. Hang it up.”

She gave me a heartbroken look. Like I’d betrayed her. “Sean we can’t, all these people, I-”

I put a finger up to her lips. “We’re not abandoning them. We stay here, we fight, we will die. We are not invulnerable. You might be. What else are you willing to give up?” I swept my gaze across the other dragon, the truck with the informorphs. “We can’t fight this battle, honey. Walk away while it’s still peaceful and find another angle.”

The captain put a hand on his holstered pistol. “I’m not really comfortable with the two of you arguing about whether you can take us, right here in front of me. Walking away is not an option- I’m ending this conversation. Surrender or we open fire. Your choice.” Thanks, asshole, way to turn up the pressure.

She looked back and forth, me to the captain. She seemed torn. Make the right call. Something settled in her eyes, and she opened her mouth to speak-

A shot rang out.

It wasn’t us- wrong direction. It came from the north-east, the direction Haley had come. One of the men covering us dropped with a yelp, a bloom of crimson from his back. All hell broke loose.

A loose collection of men in black camo, body armor and face masks were blitzing across the vast stadium lot towards us, riding on 4-wheeled vehicles. They had their rifles levelled and were already firing. I saw at least one shot spang off of Haley’s breastbone and ducked to put her between myself and the fire- cowardly, but she was at least partially bulletproof. Many of their other shots began to tell. Guardsmen were dropping, some to get prone and return fire, others simply from hits taken. One of the APC turrets began to turn, before a streak of white fire, like a spear of light, leapt from a tube on the shoulder of one of the men and obliterated it. One second a vehicle was there, the next an expanding fireball above a set of heavy wheels. The detonation was fifty feet away from me but the heat was scorching, and the sound of it threw me down. Who the fuck are these guys?

The remaining APC opened up- in the wrong direction. I didn’t know if they assumed we were all working together, or they just panicked, or what. A line of 20mm tracers slammed out, tearing chunks from the pavement and blasting three neat quarter-sized holes through Haley’s chest and left side. Blood gouted, splashed my face and obscured my vision. She roared, the feeling shook my bones and rattled my already abused eardrums, and let out a white-hot lance of her own, easily covering the gap to the vehicle. It didn’t quite detonate the APC the way that missile launcher had, but it took that barrel out of action, and her fire was joined seconds later by a much heavier stream of some kind of acidic bile from the bigger dragon. That put a pretty decisive end to it, which was good because Haley was already collapsing.

The infomorphs at the truck were in good cover and returning fire towards the special forces raiders. The big dragon didn’t seem to be under fire by the men in black, interestingly, and whatever shots the Guard were taking at her didn’t seem to interest her at all. She was looking at Haley’s collapsed form, and me, paralyzed with anxiety. “What do we do?” she wailed.

Ignoring the cracks of rifle fire still sounding close, on the verge of panic myself, I knelt down and spoke into Haley’s ear. “Come on baby, come on, don’t pass out on me here. You’ve got to shrink down honey, you’ve got to get small so we can get you away. Help me Haley, don’t die on me here, not now please honey,” just babbling. She had a far-off look in her eyes, but some part of her heard me, and she started to shift. Unfortunately for me, she was still my cover. As she shrank the crack of rifle fire sounded closer. I huddled close to the ground and waited. Within seconds she was a small golden ferret of some kind, and the shredded portions of the round that had not exited cleanly earlier tinkled to the ground next to her, ejected from her shrinking body. I scooped her in my hands, trying to hold her wounds closed with just the pressure of my fingers, and turned to run for the truck.

Another crack and I felt the strength go out of my right leg. There wasn’t even any pain. I stumbled forward with a shouted “No!” and reached out with my free hand towards the truck. It was absurd, it wasn’t even safe over there, if I made it chances were another one of those missiles would do for us anyway, but it felt like the gap between us and them was a hundred miles of no man’s land. The chaos continued around us.

Distantly I heard the guy- I presumed the one who’d shot me- shouting. “For O’Dim! For the Tower! For-” he cut off, jerking back as a shot from the infomorphs caught him in the neck. I pulled myself forward one handed, pushing with my good leg. I couldn’t get any movement from the bad one. All I was registering there was heat and wetness. Things were starting to fade but I wouldn’t let Haley go. I was the cover now, sheltering her with my body, even if I couldn’t move. I held her close. “I’m sorry honey, I- I’m sorry. I love you.”

Haley’s friend, the bigger dragon, finally came to some kind of decision. “This is wrong. This is all wrong!” She stood up and got between me, and the incoming fire. A couple of bullets whanged off her before they stopped. She grabbed me up in her mouth and threw me over her shoulder. “This isn’t how it should be! He said we were bringing peace!” With a woosh she leapt off the ground and beat her wings, and we were airborne. She called something down to the infomorphs as we flew overhead, but I couldn’t hear. I kept my grip locked tight on Haley’s body as the world went grey and I slept-

---

??? later

---

And awoke, in pain, on a makeshift operating table. A man was standing over me with blood on his hands, nearly up to the elbow, and my leg was on fire. I didn’t care. I grabbed his arm with one hand and shouted her name- but I couldn’t hear myself. He calmly detached my hand from its death grip, and pushed me back down on the table. I recognized him- it was Kevin, the EMT from the stadium- patching me up for the second time in a day, but how did he get- wherever we are? I didn’t have much time to question. He was doing something in my leg and the pain made everything go white and I slept-

---

I was standing on a grey plateau, looking out over a vast prairie. Storm clouds rolled overhead. I recognized this- this was the scene I’d discovered when I first shared Sherriff’s head. I could see the tracks his coterie wagon had made, smashing down the grass as he went. Was I really here?

“Couldn’t rightly tell ya,” said the voice behind me, and I realized I had asked my question out loud. “I’m not so sure I’m real, myself.” It was Sherriff. I turned around and saw him, in the flesh- or, I guess, carapace. He was wearing the vessel I guessed he was most comfortable in- a small, wiry soldier with a pair of six guns strapped to his upper thorax. He had a small piece of feeler grass in his mandibles, chewing it like a straw. “One minute I’m riding your head, the next- poof”

I turned back. The storm would break over this area soon. I could see what passed for trees on this world bending before the wind and rain, down on the prairie. Animals were leaving ripples in the tall grass as they ran for cover. It was stark, and harsh, and alien and beautiful. “I wonder if humans can live here,” I said, just for something to say. It felt weird not to have him in my head.

“The way you suckers fight I expect you’d find a way to live most anywhere. Amazing you can live around each other, though.” Sherriff sat down on the ground, watching the storm. “I’d say we should get to cover soon, but- I kinda wonder if this isn’t all just metaphorical.”

“I don’t think so. I don’t associate anything with this imagery. And this place has moved on in time since you were up here. I think we’re here, now, for whatever reason. The ultimate out of body experience. I’m not going to wait for the rain to hit, in any case.”

He eyed me and I knew what he was thinking. If he’s tethered to me and he rode me here- what happens if I go back? Or never go back? I turned my back on him anyway. “I trust you, Sherriff. Whatever else you are, you’re an honorable person. I’d give my life to save yours, they’re one and the same, but-”

I heard him rustle to stand beside me. “But it’s not our life we’re fighting for tonight. I won’t leave miss Haley in the lurch, you have my word on that.”

“But now we know- it’s possible to get here. It just may require death to do it.”

“So who has to die to get us back?”

I felt a tug deep in my guts. “Neither, I think- hang on-” the lightning of the storm flashed, like every bolt unloaded at once, and the world went white and I woke up-

---

It was morning and the light through the window had hit my eyes, waking me. I was in the VIP box of the stadium, our home for the last two nights. Well, that explains Kevin. I tried to sit up and nearly passed out again. I must have lost a ton of blood. My right leg ached- all of me ached, but it hurt more than the burns and cuts combined. I couldn’t see it from my prone position, but I could feel it. Like a hot iron rod had been inserted into my upper thigh, all the way through the bone. If that didn’t hit an artery I’m the luckiest son of a bitch on earth. I couldn’t feel the toes of that leg but I could see them wiggle.

I called out. “Haley? Anyone?”

She was right there, at my side. She was a dragon again- her whole chest and left side were bandages and gauze pads. I’d seen her get chunks blown out of her, just minutes ago in my recollection, and she was already mobile. That hit point system you are made of now is absolutely bullshit, darling. She put one enormous paw on my arm and leaned in. “I’m here Sean. You’re okay. You saved me.” She planted a kiss on my forehead. The heat of her presence was painful now. “You were so brave.”

I’d never been good at maudlin. I ignored the heat, reached up and held her face, awkwardly. “I’m not the one who served as a sandbag barricade last night and is already up and about.”

She winced a little, reminded of her own damage. “I was just thinking yesterday that I’m taking more damage than I can sustain. But it… hurts less than you’d think. I heal so fast, now, especially once I get up and contribute with my own skills. If our math is right I should be able to cast spells by this afternoon, and then I can repair… some of this, almost instantly.” She sat back.

We had too many important things to cover but I couldn’t think of any of them in that moment. All that was going through my head was one phrase, over and over. “Never again. I can’t lose you like that.”

She put her head down, refusing to meet my eyes. “Yes, again. And again and again. I won’t put you in danger like that a seco-” she reconsidered- “a third time. But things are scary now. Violent. I didn’t pick the fight last night, but I was about to pick some fight. Whatever it takes, to save the world.” I felt the resolve in her voice, the sadness and determination.

“I killed two men yesterday, Haley. They shot first. But they shouldn’t have been shooting at all. Because I didn’t look before I leapt.” She opened her eyes at that. It’s not just you having adventures, learning lessons out there, honey. “You know I believe in you. But- but you weren’t ready last night, and we have to be more cautious. We can’t keep running in. If you’d died last night and I figured out later a way I could have prevented it, I- I couldn’t have lived with that. If you want my help, you have to compromise here. You’re a rational heroine, so make a plan. No more rushing in.”

She hesitated, but nodded silently. I sighed. “Look, let’s not make promises we don’t intend to keep.”

She laughed. “It feels like only yesterday, I was the one in this room having a crisis of confidence, and you were the one telling me I could do anything.”

Still laying down, I crossed my arms and glared at her. “It was yesterday. Well. Day before yesterday. You can do anything, but our enemies are getting stronger too and-” I cut myself off, I wasn’t going to browbeat her. “We’ll talk about this later. Find something that works for both of us.” I asked the other burning question, “Did everyone else make it out okay? What happened with the-”

She held up a paw and ticked points off. “The infomorphs who left with you are fine. Skylar- that’s my dragon friend- told them to run away and come back later. She flew you and I over the stadium wall and landed on the field, where they took us both to triage. Luckily the infomorphs have some very good vets, given all their varied biologies, and like I said- my damage was not really as bad as it looked. I’ll heal. You, on the other hand- your right femur is shattered, you have nerve damage, and the bullet nicked your artery on the way in. You are... very lucky to be alive.” Her voice hitched. I knew she was trying to be professional but I’d scared her just as badly as she’d scared me.

She continued. “The National Guard took heavy losses but the raiders lost interest as soon as we were in the stadium, out of immediate reach. I- they had no insignia, Sean, but those men were professionals. Special operations, commandos, whatever you want to call them. They didn’t even leave bodies behind. Skylar said that Aslan picked them up in Israel. There was a man with him when I met him in the woods, a guy in black- he sent chills up my spine. If he has more of those men, I don’t know-”

I held up a hand to forestall her and did my best Joe Friday impression. “Just the facts, ma’am.” I think I came closer to death by incineration in that moment than I ever had before.

“If you even think about criticizing me for being emotional I swear-” she got ahold of herself, continued. “Ahem. The Guard fought them off, but withdrew from the stadium to get medical attention of their own. They will be back within hours, and then they’re going to try to take us into custody. The stadium can’t evacuate in time, but several of their leaders have asked us for help, now that they see what we’re up against, and now that Delmutt has told them what happened in Blackwood.” She hesitated, then burst again. “We’ve got to find somewhere to go, and get ready, and then we have to rescue all these people, and stop an angry god and an army of special forces before they kill everyone. Sean I just don’t know-”

I held up my hand a second time. “Not to worry, my dear. I happen to know the location of a bunker. And I have a cunning plan.”