-Nic's POV- 

Am I about to kill my only son that shared my blood? It would surely seem that way. Time around us comes to a rolling halt and the world begins to tumble in slow motion, a turn dial that had lost its momentum. I see Envari, standing beside me, hands up to tell me to stop. The moment my finger pulls the trigger, I instantly wish I could take it back. 

All that anger building up inside me was misguided and I knew it was out of sheer pain that I acted against Gabriel. 

 While I had fought with the man a few times already, I could see that killing him had been somewhat of an afterthought, I never allowed myself to get that far mentally, it was something I had accepted as a possibility more than a reality. He was my only tie left to Fillipa, left to a life we'd been forced to leave behind, the only thing that represented my lineage in this world.

 Gabriel was the last remaining line of blood that had sunk into the ruins of time, I would never reproduce again and it didn't seem that he had any progeny of his own. 

 I just wanted my family to be safe, I wanted to blame someone for all the suffering we had endured. Much as I wanted that person to be Gabriel, faced with murdering him in seemingly cold blood, it felt wrong. The man had caused plenty of destruction, I wouldn't have to look hard to justify his murder to myself, but it was exactly that. 

A murder. 

Try as I might to leave this side of myself behind, I had engrained it in, early on in this process, the importance of a single life no matter the intentions behind it.

Gabriel had been left to the mercy of the school, his entire youth wasted with creatures that wished him no goodwill. He was trying to enact my vision. 

If he was standing beside Verando, alive, he was either there peacefully or he had taken control of the man. It would appear that peace was much more likely, finalizing the fear in my mind that I was making a mistake. In my urgency to defend the source of my existence, the bleeding wolf, it had already slipped my mind the conversation I had had with Verando on this topic. 

He believed Gabriel was a good man trapped in bad circumstances, hadn't I agreed that I would try?

The hollow echo of the chamber releasing the bullet caused my fingers to chill, my magic expelling to chase after the object in hopes of capturing it before it made contact. Perhaps I'll get lucky, I might be able to stop the bullet in time, or better yet, Gabriel might deflect it and save his own life. 

My aim was not the best, I had not had much of a use for guns save for this exact circumstance. Against other magic users, a man-made weapon was the safest way to ensure a victory.

At its purest, magic responded best to organic structures. Our old spells and abilities, at times, felt nearly useless against modern technologies. The newer generation faired better yet still lacked the potency and the power of a simpler time. The reality was, we were no longer the most powerful thing to walk this earth. 

Again, I ask myself, could I blame any of them for the fear of what could come from this alliance?

I blink away the haze of thought and realize that it was not only my world that had slowed but the universe in its entirety seemed at a standstill. Caspian is wedged between Kestrel and Helen, fighting for his life and succeeding, while humans and magic users alike collide in a brawl that wrenches my chest. War was ugly, war was brutal, it left no man unmarked. 

Gabriel appears before me, bullet in hand. 

Flinching back away from him, I throw up my hands to protect myself but he's not on the assault. "You are using a lot of dark magic." I accuse him, gritting my teeth at the audacity. I had just been arguing for his life and now he's influencing reality as if it were an inconvenience to exist in one space. Actions like this are what drove me to shoot him.

Unspeaking, his eyes shift toward Envari and he extends his hand to her. Her hands immediately move to clutch her throat, she looks as though she's choking as she claws for air.

 In an act of complete disbelief, I blast his arm out of the way with a strike of ice and redirect my gun to his head. "Touch her again and I'll blow your brains out. I won't miss this time."

Surprise flints across his face and he regards me, glancing me up and down curiously. "You can see her?"

"Ever since you dragged us into the dragon realm." I retort sharply, motioning for Envari to get behind me. She fades into a misty haze, knowing better than to stay where a being on this plain can touch her. 

"She's a spirit. She doesn't belong in this realm." 

Of course, he would see it that way, he practically saw himself as a god. "Touch her again and you will answer to me." I keep my voice low. What had been my intention? He had frozen time effectively, angering him might result in the rip of the very fabric of our reality. Yet, I felt an urgent need to protect this woman from him. 

Perhaps it was because I knew that deep down, Verando had not yet gotten to say a proper goodbye to her or it was her gentle expression and the way she wanted to help me. 

In the pit of my stomach, I knew the truth was that I missed my mother too much to shrug off a second one who seemed to care for me. 

As the city burns in a slow yield, the embers taking eternities to reach their height, the smoke seems to only be forming instead of disappearing, I question if I would truly survive a fight with this man. "You would die if you fought me," Gabriel assures me, his voice absolute. 

It's as if he could read my mind.

 Slipping his hood back off of his head, his hands seem to fade between the dimensions, as if he didn't exist on this plane either. "You are not strong enough to defeat me, not now. Not yet."

My lips pull down at the corners, my eyes widening on their own. He was stronger, he'd been gone for days, had he... "Please... please tell me you didn't," I beg, I plead beyond all hope that Fergus is still alive. 

Reality seems to distort, everything around us flickers and glistens as if to cause me to question if it existed. "Tell me Fergus is still alive!" I charge my hands, blasting him with a beacon of light. He disappears, only to reemerge beside me. 

"The unicorn?" Gabriel considers this. "The unicorn is fading. I tapped into the last of its reserves to end this war. I came here to help, I want to help."

If he wanted to help then why was he murdering the spirit of the earth? 

"You've doomed us all!" I thunder, punching through the shimmer of his body as he fades once more. This realm felt so familiar to me, something of a distant memory. The way it flickered around me like a dream, I felt like I'd been here before.

 My control was slipping, my resolve to allow him to live withering away with each passing moment. "What are you doing to the fabric of time?"

 The edges of reality darken, focusing in on this one point.

Once more he appears, directly in front of me this time. His face mirrors mine, only older, much older. I see so much of myself reflected in him, his skin color, the heavy weight of his blood-colored hair, and the shape of his dark eyes. "I'm not doing this. You are. You summoned me into your head space, I just answered. It's a unique ability that I thought only I had, it's a novelty for me too."

I was doing this?

I had done this before, in times of stress and when I was on my last breath, my mind could project itself into purgatory though since my father left me, I had been unable to access it again. Now, my father stands beside Gabriel only in this version it is not me he's looking at but my long-forgotten progeny who should never have existed. "Father?"

Gabriel tilts his head towards the man who had guided me through the trials of learning who I was, who had died at the hands of my husband. "He has followed me since I was a boy, though I never discovered his name, I felt I knew him. This is your father?"

It would make sense, the world never knew my father by his name and even if Gabriel had been able to figure it out, this version of the man was much younger than what people of our time would remember. The Darrius that visited either of us was the one who had been sane, the one who hadn't been cursed by my sister. It was only right that he had left me to help another, I had never truly needed him.

"Yes," I murmur, my voice doesn't even sound like my own. "Darrius," I tell him. The world around us trembles and Gabriel takes a more defensive position. I am ready for him to attack me, preparing my magic into my fingertips yet Darrius raises his hand to stop me. Gabriel's eyes search the sky and I track his gaze, finally spotting the distant beacon of a flicker of electricity.

 "Grayson..." The word burns my throat, I should have killed him when I had the chance. 

The side of good was wrought with peril in that good morals only proceeded to help the wicked. 

The encroaching magical army was too much for our meager forces. We were unprepared to enter a full assault, we needed more time to prepare. "You said you want to help?" I have to turn this around and gain control over myself, I can't allow my emotions to get the best of me. With a curt nod, it's his turn to seem wary of me. While he was sure he could beat me, and this I didn't dispute, he was well aware of exactly how powerful I was. 

He and I were similar it would seem, surely whatever power he had I could have if I went to the same lengths, the fact that he was uncertain of me would work to my advantage. "We have to turn Caspian away and stop Grayson."

The full lips pull into a thin line, scanning the group around us as time slowly begins to progress once more. Darrius vanishes, his body flickers like a dying candle's flame. "There's not only Grayson, Capsian has amassed an elemental army. All four elements fight on his side and everything in between. Grayson is just the most unstable. If Grayson is returning.. he will have reinforcements."

Sending a charge to my fingertips, I drop my guard and allow time to spin forward, bringing us back to reality where Verando remains sprawled across the asphalt. I run to him, Gabriel close behind me as I kneel beside the wolf and quickly take inventory. "Fuck, Randy." I manage, my voice strangled. 

I couldn't possibly heal him, not enough to get him fighting again. Placing my hand over the wolf's throat, I close those wounds first then get to work yanking the packing out of his abdomen so I could seal the vessels there. Verando whines, I stroke the soft fur, murmuring that I'd never forgive myself for how long it took me to get to him. 

"You're alright. I'm going to get you out of here." I tell him firmly, turning to Gabriel who looks bewildered that I'd even glance in his direction for help. "Help me."

Trying to drag him was not working, with his shattered shoulder, it was much too painful. So, despite my better judgment, I insist that he stand and my agonized husband carefully crawls to his shaking paws. Wedged between us, Gabriel lays down cover fire as we get him into an alleyway. Verando hardly makes it as he collapses down against the wall of the ally in a heap, chest heaving, limp from the weight of supporting the body of the wolf. "I'm tapped out, Nic." He apologizes as I stroke the soft gray hair on his forehead. 

"It's alright, I.. I.." What was I going to do?

"You're going to leave me here." He insists, as much as I want to argue with him, it seemed we were running out of time and options. "I'm the last thing anyone is worrying about. Leave me here, they need you. Helen needs you."

Gabriel examines the alleyway. "I'll put a glamour over him. It should keep him safe as long as the building doesn't fall."

But if it did, he wouldn't be able to escape in his current state. 

"Nicolas. You know as well as I do that you're wasting time." Verando's voice is short, and hard, but hoarse from fatigue. 

 Shaking my head, I reluctantly stand. "Don't you dare get captured. Understand me?" I demand of him, before turning my glare on Gabriel. "The city can not be allowed to fall. If this is the stand we must make, will you stand with us?" I ask him, my progeny, my enemy. 

"Is that what a family would do?" Gabriel's voice is quiet. "I feel as though I should feel afraid... the odds seem quite stacked against so few. Logic dictates that your side is not the one that will succeed." 

I can't afford to entertain Gabriel's assessment, I can't allow myself to think of it. "Grayson is on the approach, Gabriel feels he will have reinforcements." 

The gray muzzle tips towards the darkening sky, I pull up my watch and murmur quickly our coordinates to Fadri as I demand that he send reinforcements. His inky black nose twitches, taking a slow inhale. The bearded man tilts his head, "Fascinating... so much a corpse can't tell you. What do you smell?"

I want to roll my eyes, wedging myself between the two. 

Verando's ears flatten against his skull, his coat standing on end. "I'm not smelling Grayson, I don't think this is Grayson at all."

My lips part and the loud horn blasts against the sky. A bugle of sorts, bellowing out a great, low groan that causes every lycan to take pause. Again, it blasts and it seems to take on every fiber of the world around us. The air current feels electrified as if I could see the current. 

"Helen!" Verando barks, causing the slim female to skirt quickly across the space to our side. Caspian dared not follow, for he must feel it, too.

"What is that?" I cover my ears as the horn blasts again and the sky turns black yet the air around us doesn't darken. Ignited by some cosmic energy, we're trapped in a red haze as the beacon of light nears. 

Caspian drops to his side, screaming in agony as he curls around his stomach. Each blast threatens to floor him as the light nears. Everyone had stopped and once more, time stood still. "Tyr." Verando mumurs, one short word, as the light strikes the ground as if it were a bolt of lightning. 

The asphalt erupts, exploding in all directions, Gabriel deflects shards as Caspian belts out another scream. It sounded as if he were strangling his humanity. In the crater, among the dust, two bright green eyes glare out at us as the growing man begins his trek toward us. First, he was small, then he grew to nearly ten feet in height. Dressed in a leather breastplate, heavy furs and leathers clad to his hips to make a sort of kilt.

His heavy boots make not a sound as he crosses the man-made street, burning holes in the asphalt as rage fills his eyes. Bright green orbs set in the dark skin, and hair glowing white, long and flowing. Landon had become Lux, Lux was the embodiment of Tyr. I did not need an introduction to know exactly who I was looking at. As the massive hand stretches out, a sword forms into it, the hilt chained to his one good hand where the other seems to have vanished. 

 Lux, the embodiment of Tyr, the slayer of Fenrir, had no patience for wolves. "Does it burn, mortal? Does it burn to have satan himself in your belly?" He snarls, gritting his teeth at the writhing Caspian. Walking past us without a glance, Gabriel readies his hand and I quickly snatch his wrist. The sword swings, pointed at us with deadly accuracy. "Those who play with dark magic would be wise to stay out of the sight of a god."

The words draw his attention to Verando and Helen, his eyes begin to narrow. "Why am I not surprised to see the spawn of that foul creature have something to do with the rebirth of Fenrir? I will deal with you next. First, I must rid this realm of the first tragedy." Sparks fly as the tip of the sword skirts across the ground and he raises it to Caspian. 

The wolf howls in agony, eyes blood red, fangs exposed as his celestial being fights to get out. 

It should stop surprising me that my husband gets involved, when I thought he had nothing left, when his body was in shambles, he was racing across the space on three legs and trailing blood without any regard for himself. Verando runs past me to get in between the wolf and the god, baring his fangs at the slayer of beasts and Lux hardly pauses, readying his sword. 

"If you kill Fenrir in this form, he will merely jump to the next. You will face him in a much stronger body and he will consume, it must be done correctly." Verando challenges. 

With a crack of thunder the sword swings and narrowly misses the gray creature. I move to run for him and realize Helen and Gabriel are now holding me back. "You speak of correctness when you are merely the vessel of the most corrupt of us all. Whitewind stole a gift and turned himself into a god, you are as bad as that beast if not more so. You bed with humans as if you are one of them and all you do is consume."

Thunder cracks as the sword swings again. Verando narrowly staggered out of the way, I knew the stance for I'd felt it myself, he was running on borrowed time. His body could do little more than stand there, distracted as Caspian belts out another blood-curdling scream. "Fenrir can not get out of that vessel." Verando demands, "They are not compatible. He wants you to kill Caspian, you are playing into his hands." 

The massive man swings the sword again this time, he captures the wolf by the scruff on the retreat. "Bear your god, stop using this mortal form to wager with me!" He roars, "You wish me to trust you with such a task? Trust a wolf to end a wolf? Trust Hatred to end Greed? You are the embodiment of Fenrir's children, Hatred... Hati...." Blue chill exhales from his teeth as he observes the squirming wolf. "You defend him because he's your celestial brother... Greed.. Skoll. The gods waited for you to kill him and you could not in any of your lives."

Casting the wolf to the ground, I jump and form a blanket of snow under him as he crashes to the earth. Breaking free, I run to him as Lux moves to walk around him. My movement catches his eyes as I reach Verando's side and he raises his sword. Shoving my hand to the sky as I kneel, I send a sheet of ice into the blade with an amount of force that startles me and knocks Lux off balance. 

Stumbling backward, the god scowls deeply at me only to hesitate. At my side, Verando stands, teeth bared and eyes solid blue. Looking to my left, I see that Helen holds my other side, eyes shimmering much the same. A spirit restored, a god returned, an energy source renewed and an organic substance to unleash my wrath upon if he decided to attack us. 

"I only ask that you listen," I command, rising to my feet.