The joys of magical medicine are never wasted on me. I'm happy to shower and shave as soon as my healing session is over; as much as I'm unappreciative of the act of a passionate kiss, I'm grateful for its effectiveness. 

I feel rejuvenated, and while I might not be one hundred percent, I feel well enough to demand they allow me to go home. "Try not to be too active. You're not fully healed, and it's going to take a few more sessions." Sef reminds me, dabbing her forehead with a handkerchief. 

I'm sure she's drained; healing such intense wounds can be rather exhausting. It serves as a rather unfriendly reminder that my powers had specialized and I was quite useless in the art of healing anyone nowadays. 

In the mirror, I inspect the mark the bullet wound left and cringe at the twisting effect on my healing ribs. Retreating from the bathroom, I'm greeted by Tonya, who demands I sit so she can rebandage my injuries and look me over. 

"What're you doing here?" I inquired curiously, she was honestly the last person I expected to be here. 

Eyeing me with a hint of amusement, she shrugs as she places the padding and gauze over the wound. I'm happy to have it covered; one more scar, one more injury, I don't need to look at it to be reminded that Tonic was the one who had tried to end my fiance's life, which would have effectively ended mine.

"You're in a government hospital, and my child is here, I'm not about to lose any of you again. If I'm in charge of your case, then there's nothing they can do to force you to stay." 

Oh, right, Helen and Tyler are the ones who brought Sef. 

My lips part to ask as her eyes catch mine, she gestures with her chin towards the door. "Outside to give you a bit of privacy. Their pretty excited with their new roles, you've made quite the effect on them. Running an entire magical community, I hear, is a pretty big step." 

I can sense her hesitation and wait patiently for the 'but.' She grimaces under my gaze, tightening the bandage around my waist. "Do you think they're ready for all of this?"

It makes me laugh, as much as I try not to. "No one is ready. I'm not going to lie to you Tonya, no their not ready in the slightest. But, they're doing a good job with what they have. I can't complain, Helen has surpassed expectations, and Tyler is really beginning to master his trade. They're going to be fine."

 While I can't promise their safety, I can at least ease her worry with the lie I'd tell any other mother. They are talented enough to survive, that's all anyone can ask for. 

The thought makes me hesitate; how would I feel if it were my own child? Would I want the truth or would I accept the lie? 

Try as I might not to allow it to deflate me, my humanity alone convinces her that I'm doing all I can to ensure their safety. 

Very gently, she hugs me.

"Thank you. For all you do, Nic. You care about them; that gives me hope that we might come out of this." 

I pat her back awkwardly and utter a nervous chuckle, sliding out of bed to step into a pair of pants and pull on my sweater. At least she can admit that she didn't believe in the cause to start with, it would seem there was a lot of that going out in our group lately. 

"I've put in your discharge papers. With Thanksgiving so close, we really shouldn't hang around here much longer than necessary if we want to get anything done. I have a lot of cooking to do, and things to set up, you're coming to our home for the holiday, right?" 

I pause at the invite, why would we do that? I had anticipated an evening alone with my fiance, not a social gathering. 

She frowns at my expression, "You had... intended.. on coming?" 

Our times were so different, I hadn't even celebrated a birthday since this all began, let alone a holiday. 

I hedge, searching the overstocked walls for answers. The odd prints and the walls of medical knowledge offer little inspiration for a way out of it.  "Erm, Verando and I didn't have Thanksgiving in our time, so I'm afraid we aren't well-versed in the customs." 

He wouldn't want to go, but somehow, without it even being my own tradition, I feel obligated. Maybe it's my desperation for a family that spurs me into social events.

She seems to accept this, and I sigh in relief, only to curse as she rallies. "Well be at my house the morning of and you can help me prepare, it's a big family thing, there are games and movies and food- we haven't had a proper thanksgiving in years so it'll be nice to celebrate with the family. Take some of the tension off of Gary and I-"

 As she drones on, I set to work packing up mine and Verando's things, while the drama wasn't really my forte, it was nice to hear about such typical problems as marital issues. So often, we were dealing with a lost destiny and lack of purpose, a plague, or an evildoer. 

This seemed so normal, speaking to what would be my daughter-in-law about her bastard husband. In my distraction, the notebook falls out of his laptop case, and I pause, eyeing it with a renewed curiosity that almost makes me feel ashamed. 

With a quick glance, she hasn't even taken a breath as she goes into the depths of the depravity of the man that was Gary. He had convinced her their life was a teen novel, I can't say I feel sorry for her; anyone would have known better. But, she didn't fall for the man who killed her parents, so I suppose she's doing better than me. 

Rolling my eyes at my own sick humor, I pick up the book and hold it firmly in my fingers. 

Was he still hiding things from me? 

I couldn't help the suspicion creeping into my subconscious. He scribbled an awful lot in this thing; perhaps his secrets were now on paper. I thumb the edge of the paper, tempting myself to pry into the life of this secretive man I was destined to wed.

 With my luck, he had written in English, and I wouldn't be able to read it anyway; my English was still woefully dreadful when it came to reading. 

"Are you listening, Nic?"

Her voice cuts through my thoughts, and I jump as the door opens; a man is shoved in, and he falls to his knees. By the look of the metallic arm, I can see that this man is Tonic, his hair is longer than I'd ever seen it and he looks more fit in some ways and yet sick in others. 

His skin color is off, paler, which is washed out by the stubble on his jaw. He used to remind me so much of his father, and yet here before me, he couldn't look any more different. 

Verando ushers our group in and closes the door firmly behind him, locking it. I'm shocked to see Tiberius here, the Siren looks pleased to be involved with good drama. 

"Good morning?" I attempt, eyeing my warlord as the wave of anger hits me like a tidal wave of emotional energy. He's furious, livid as he closes the door, his body vibrates as he attempts to reel it in and I know something had to have happened.

Concern crosses my face, and he returns my fear with a stern glare that suggests I best keep my worries to myself. He has his Alpha face on; at this moment, we are fulfilling our jobs. "What do I owe the pleasure?"

"Judgement, dear Nicolas!" Tiberius coos sweetly as if he had been part of this plot all along. When your job is to babysit perfect beings, I can't say I blame him for wanting a piece of side action. As much as I didn't care for the Siren, he seemed harmless, if not idiotic. 

Though, I would suppose that was part of the ruse. Legardo gives him a sharp elbow to the side, making him hiss in response as Verando steps towards me and away from the grating individual. 

"The facility is wanting to deal with Tonic in their own ways, you know what that means."

 Actually, I don't, because he won't tell me what happened to him. Not entirely, at least. 

"I've brought him to you because it's you who he tried to kill; you know how I would handle this, but these are different times. I want to know what your judgment is before I release his sorry ass to his fate." 

Verando snatches the gray mop, yanking the man's head back so he's forced to meet my gaze. I stare back into those brown eyes of a man who used to be my best friend, and he looks back at me with the eyes of a stranger. 

I feel the weight of my own judgment weighing over my head, with Tyler and Helen looking on it was imperative to show mercy in front of young eyes and yet mercy had been my enemy many times. My kindness had almost gotten us killed, but Verando's own generosity meant that Red was free to roam and continue her destruction. 

I purse my lips, trying to steady my heart rate as I mull over what type of example these people deserve. The decision unfolds so smoothly in front of me; the ease with which I come to my conclusion is almost frightening. 

"You know this is normally your department." I remind him, as light-hearted as I dare. Verando is in no mood to entertain me, his stern expression locked on the gray hair of the kneeling man. "I feel as though I know your answer."

His body stiffens, and he feels as I do. It's time to make an impression, and the wrong one could set the tone of this era for the rest of its existence. We needed leaders, replicas of us, if not better; there was no room in this life for weakness. 

"The penalty for treason is death." He reminds me. The room grows cold, save for the Siren, who grins so wickedly I take back my previous thoughts of the innocence and stupidity of the creature. A pet of the gods, a wicked beast responsible for luring many men to their deaths, we only continued to prove ourselves interesting.

So it was. "An act of violence against a king-"

"You're not a king, and you're sure as hell not my king, not anymore." Tonic spits on the floor.

 Verando tightens his grip on the man's hair with a harsh growl, making him wince. 

"You must let this world end; the Good King is gone. You're all traitors, the lot of you!" 

The dark tone in which he speaks is haunting, chilling me to my core. What happened to him?

He had been different, but not to this extent. I search Verando's face, but he gives nothing away. He's too angry, too emotional, to see beyond the crime his progeny had committed against us. He didn't care about his possessions or his life, not even his home, he cared that I had almost been killed and that was unforgivable. 

I can't allow myself to feed into the emotion of the situation. "For acts of treason against your people and your family, I sentence you." I remind him, my tone short.

"I have no family. I denounce this lineage, and I'm going on my own path. I am not another political puppet, taking blood money from the government. You've sold-out, both of you! You've even turned Marisol into one of them." He practically snarls, earning a scoff from his father. "It's disgusting; what are you doing for those people that need help? Nothing! Nothing!" 

Verando jerks his hair back, wrenching the man and making him grimace at the discomfort of his distorted pose.

"Four hundred years, it's taught you nothing. You're a disgrace." 

This disappointment is heavy in the air, clouding over what should be a sentence, not a punishment.  I can't help but sigh at him; he's not helping. 

Raising my hand to lycan warlord, I turn my attention to Tonic. It must be done; there had to be a point where we stopped turning a blind eye to these acts, and we ceased allowing people to walk free. 

Slowly, I slide my hand to rest before the male's face. 

Taking a deep breath, I center myself, preparing myself for what I must do. "We must stop making exceptions and start making examples." 

Tiberius must see this. Helen and Tyler must realize what their jobs entail. We were chosen because we can make hard decisions; not everyone gets to survive. 

"There comes a time where we must do the hard things, act not because we want to but because it's what must be done. I won't send you to wallow in a life of torture at the hands of the government, but I can not allow you to return to a lifestyle of treason alongside Red. For those reasons, Tonic, I must agree with the punishment of our era. Death. "

"Death?!" Legardo snaps, taken aback. 

"You're going to kill him? Here?" Tonya demands, touching my arm only to retract her fingers from the chill quickly. "Nic, surely-"

"Ron will handle the cover-up.." Verando tells her, cutting her off before she can escalate. They weren't used to this; people in this time got a trial and a jury. We didn't have that luxury regarding criminals who weren't playing by the same rules. 

In jail or in the hands of the government, we might never find him again. "He can't be allowed to continue this. How many more times must we almost lose our lives before it becomes too much? Tonic has said his piece, and a man is as good as his word. If that's how he feels, then he should be judged by those statements."

Tonic tilts his chin up, gritting his teeth. "I'm not afraid. This is how you have always solved everything, killing whoever doesn't appease you. I won't be a part of it, not any longer. I signed on to this task when I thought we were helping people, not lining your damned pockets. I thought you were different, Nic. I thought you were better than him-" Tonic glowers at his father, "But you're worse. You're so much worse, I can't believe I ever wanted-"

Verando shoves the man to the ground, stepping on the back of his neck with his boot. "Enough."

My heart threatens to fracture. I so badly want him to renounce this, to apologize, to try and convince me that this wasn't his doing, and yet I know by the look in his eyes that he feels our cause is a lost one. He is no longer my Tonic; my Tonic had been left four hundred years in the past. This man was not the same friend I had so long ago. 

"If I thought reasoning with you would help this, I'd get down on my knees and beg. You're too far gone in your depravity." I reassure him. "It will be quick and painless."

"You're not going to interrogate him?" Legardo steps forward, threatening to get in between Tonic and me, and to our surprise, it's Helen who stops him. She plants her body between him and me, a low growl rumbling in her chest, guarding me against the approach.

"Don't be absurd; there's nothing to gain from one like this. You'd torture him till you were falling over from exhaustion, and he wouldn't tell you a word." Verando retorts back sharply. Tonic is from his own blood, and I know torture would do nothing to move those lips. 

Tonya shuffles nervously, capturing my attention. "I can't. I can't allow you to do this, not here, not in a place of healing. He deserves a trial; let the staff take him. It's obvious he's sick, he's been treated for Post Traumatic Stress, look at his damn files! He needs help, not to be accused of something he can't control!" 

She seems on edge. I catch Tyler's gaze, and he adjusts his body to angle towards her. Pulling out a gun quicker than I could fathom, she points it at me, and Tyler shoves her hand, pushing it towards the roof. Her untrained finger squeezes the trigger, and she blasts the sprinkler system. Water rains down on us as the sirens go off; the lights flicker in irritated distress as the water pours around us. 

"I.. we... this can't happen. Tonic's a good man! It wasn't supposed to happen this way! I.. I didn't mean for him to go this far. Please. Just stop! Everyone needs to stop!"

I hear Verando grunt as Tonic drives the metallic arm into his stomach. They slip and slide on the tile floor, and the male struggles to grasp the robotic creation. I pull the water to quickly freeze the gun in Tonya's hand as Legardo helps my young protege subdue her. 

She frees herself, clubbing Tyler over the head with the frozen block and swinging defensively at Helen as she grabs her. Tonic pulls free from Verando as I use a gust of wind to slam the door from the outsiders, desperately trying to open it. 

The metallic foot hits the lycan warlord in the thigh, bringing him down to one knee as Helen shifts, and the white wolf snatches the man's thigh with her fangs. 

"I won't let him take the blame for me! I did it; I messed with his medicine! I changed out his pills, I knew he'd snap, and I just wanted everyone to stop! I want my family back; I want to help people. The killing needs to stop!" Tonya tells us, smashing the ice on her frozen hand over the head of the snowy creature. 

Horrified, she freezes, staring at her daughter. "Helen.. honey, you know I hate it when you look like that. Turn back for Mama; you're not one of these... creatures. Helen, please." her voice borders on hysteria, her hands shaking wildly.

Helen yelps, backing up quickly and pawing at her muzzle as I try to separate the two with a blast of frost. In a last-ditch effort, Tonic runs for the window with Helen hot on his heels. 

Tonya races after him, "This is my fault, I can't let him do it! Tonic, please!"

"Helen, don't!" The gray wolf rips his way through the soft folds of the sweater. 

Tonic leaps through the window, with Tonya following close behind him while Helen leaps to grab her. Her jaws snap on the woman's upper body as her body disappears over the ledge, and Verando dives after her, his hips catching on the ledge. He grips her scruff with his jaws, struggling to keep his back legs hooked over the window's ledge.

 Legardo uses his weight to pin the creature to the window sill as I use a burst of air to retract them back into the building. I run to the window sill, past the pile of wolves and people, to look for Tonic, who has vanished. 

My feet slosh in the red-tinged water, and I see that Helen has bitten down across her mother's shoulder and chest, red paints the light tiles, and I quickly turn to Tyler. "Get a medic! Now!" 

Tyler rushes out of the room as Legardo joins me, pushing the white female away. "Look what you've done, Helen..." The man whispers, trembling as he kneels beside the ghostly gray woman. I'd seen enough death to know when someone had been mortally wounded, her eyes were still slightly open, her lips parted, her skin the odd shade of lifeless pale hue. 

Verando gets in between Legardo and Helen as the pale-haired girl shifts back into herself, smearing at the blood covering her lips. "I.. I was trying to catch her. I.. I didn't mean to hurt her-I thought that-"

"Helen. This is not your fault." Verando tells her firmly. "It was an accident, Tonya knew what she was doing when she jumped-"

"She was trying to save the man you were intent on killing! I can't believe I let you lure me back in with that bloody sob story. You're right; it's not her fault; it's your fault for convincing her that this was the appropriate choice for a young girl! She'll live with this for the rest of her life, knowing she killed her own mother!" It's Legardo's turn to break down, clutching the limp hand of the woman, and sob. "It's my fault for letting this all happen."

Verando flinches; I can already feel the self-loathing settling in. Would this pain cycle ever stop?

"STOP!" I demand them all, holding pressure on the pale woman's neck. "Tonya, can you hear me?" 

Tiberius kneels before me, clutching her face in his hand and watching her eyes. 

"Look at her pupils. I wouldn't say she was completely charmed, but someone might have been inducing hysteria. Long term possibly? " He tilts her head from side to side and frowns. "There's no use getting a medic. Her brain is cooked; look at her. She was dead before she jumped."

"We have to try," I murmur to him, glancing quickly towards Legardo who seemed unwilling to accept that his wife was dead. 

Tyler rushes back into the room, followed by a flurry of nurses as the sprinklers die down. A body can only lose so much blood, there wouldn't be any chance of recovering her as the emergency team shoves Legardo out of the way to begin stripping off the woman's clothes and working on her. Pressing on her chest, trying to restart her heart. 

It's haunting to watch her pale, lifeless body jerk and rock with the attempt. Those vacant eyes unseeing. Sometimes, it feels as if our time was easier in this way. Nobody tried to get you back, I remembered sitting with men while they took their last breaths; sometimes, trying was harder than letting someone go. 

"Get out." Legardo manages. I'm almost offended; it was my hospital room, but I understood the sentiment. I press Verando's shoulder, guiding the wolf out of the room with the Siren close behind while I hear Tyler scolding Helen. 

While it disgusted me, listening to her sob while he tried to explain to her how this was entirely her fault, it wasn't my place to get even more involved in this shattered family. No matter how much I wanted to shove him, disown him, or take Helen far away from here. 

Her mother was dead; she'd have to be willing to accept it was truly an accident. 

Exiting the room, I stand with Verando in the hall, "Do you think... Red figured out Corina's magic?"

He frowned as best he could, laying his ears back. "Not necessarily. She has learned to manipulate, but she's bad at it. She told me she couldn't do this on her own when we last met and was in over her head. I think there is some part we are not seeing. The good news, if there is any, is that we know she can't manipulate political figures because they would die if she tried. It would appear Tonya had a very slow leak of hysteria, acting on emotions she already had... we could explain it off as that."

I frown back, running my fingers through his scruff. We were too numb to delve deeper; my body was at its wit's end already. "She could kill whoever she wanted if this is true."

Tiberius closes the door behind him, "Only those who want to be controlled can be controlled. To do it from such a distance required a rather lax conscience. It was quite interesting to observe; this world is fascinating. I can see why Skoll and Hati had so much fun creating lycans." He muses, twiddling his fingers as if he'd like to stroke the silvery coat. 

"I don't know what's happening, but want to help. This is fun, and I haven't had fun like this in over a thousand years. I want to play."