Home?

<Snip>

Seymour pulled Katrina slowly to the ground and looked down as he said, “I’m so sorry Kat.” Katrina wanted to hit him but was still in shock by what Anubis had done for her since they didn’t really get a long. Seymour looked around at the devastation that had transpired and said, “It’s finally over.”

"What is?" asked Plisken, lighting his pipe and beginning to smoke his favourite tobacco, Quickadeath.

</Snip>

The chaos died down slowly, like someone letting the air out of a balloon making that awful squeaking sound. Jade as the tension dropped found herself coming back to her senses, the threat of being consumed by the darkness gone. She found herself clinging embarrassingly to Alex, gripping onto his arm as if it were a lifebuoy in a stormy ocean. She let go slowly mumbling an apology.

"S'no need to apologise" He said, a confused smile on his face.

"No, it's just that..." She stumbled over the words. Not quite sure how to admit that as a 37 year old woman, she was afraid of the dark and still slept with a light on. Candles counted too.

"Oh Lexi! You were so brave!" Jaaday purred, stroking at Twalex's hair.

"I was wasn't I?" He gleamed.

"Pompous peacock." Jade murmered. Sharing a look with Alex. The nobles began to file out, under the careful gaze of the rebels. Jaaday and Twalex fawning over each other like a couple of lovesick teenagers. "If I ever get like that kill me" Jade grumbled, secretly wondering if there was more she could have said or talked about with Jaaday. Anything she could have learned from her at all. Doubtful, but worth pondering briefly.

"Same." Alex sighed, watching his alternate self leave. Wondering if there was more to have been said at all.

There was no more time for talking though, as Seymour and the other Archmages had joined them, along with Cass.

"I assume you are ready to leave immediately?" Seymour asked everyone. "Did you have any posessions that you need to retrieve before you go? The ambient power here will last for a while, but not forever."

There was a general chorus of no from everyone. They had been unceremoniously dropped here from the Roo warren, and had almost everything they had arrived with, with a few exceptions.

"Don't you need blood for your magic?" Cass asked. That would have meant most likely death for someone.

"We do. But your arrival here has made it possible for us to defeat Ra, so it is only fair that I instigate your travel home."

Cass was about to open her mouth in protest, but a new portal opened above them, looking much like the face of the Retributors.

"They're back!" Hasina called, whipping her energy staff around to shoot at it. Everyone else scattered, but only a single thing fell from the portal, before it vanished again.

It was Ra.

"You live..." Ra said. He was lying on the ground in the middle of the group, as they all converged on him.

"You were wrong." Said Seymour. "You didn't open a portal, you summoned beasts that can only devour." He shook his head in disgust. "You are no God."

"I see that now." Ra said, looking down. He had a nasty wound on his chest from his ritual, blood was oozing from it at a steady pace.

"Isn't he the perfect source of powerful blood to get us home?" Cass asked. Everyone knew Ra was bad news, and it would only serve as a useful way to get rid of him, rather than let him bleed out.

"Yes!" Ra said, sparking up. "Let me redeem myself. Use me to send them home. It's my own fault all of this happened. My time in the void taught me that."

"You have done far worse crimes." Seymour said, towering over him. "But everyone deserves a chance."

Soon, the Archmages had created a circle around Ra, everyone from the Blue Dwarf was together in that one place, alternates and originals. The circle began to chant, beginning in a slow, monotonous tone, until it became disjointed and powerful. Some sped up, while others slowed down until it was a mix of noise that few could make out.

Then Ra truly disappeared. In his place, a swirling blue puddle appeared, hovering in the air.

"Go." Seymour said. "There isn't much time."

The circle broke as Archmages released their grip on the Mage next to them, and everyone entered.

"It was good to see you again, Narcissa." He said to Cass as she approached.

And so, one by one, they entered. Everyone said their goodbyes to their alternates, or to those whom they had shared time with.

As the puddle began to fade, everyone looked around to the familiar sight of a Blue Dwarf cargo bay. It was bleak, empty and felt like home.

Seymour smiled.

"Goodbye, everyone. Good luck." He said, and looked from the desert, through the portal, to see Seymour in a wheelchair onboard the Blue Dwarf. Seymour looked back at him, mouth wide.

One saw a scarred, battle torn warrior, and the other saw a broken, battle torn warrior. There wasn't time to correct one of them, but it would stay with both of them forever.

"Was that... Me?" Seymour asked after the portal had disappeared. He couldn't believe the differences.

<Tag all. We're Home.>