When Duncan arrived at the Blue Vixen, Ray was outside to meet him.  Duncan looked around and chuckled.  “I see what you mean by a big problem.”

Ray nodded.  “Tawny and Carmen were so keen on defending us, and the plan we came up with...”

Duncan turned around, taking in the sight of the enormous serpentine form of the two women.  Their body wrapped all the way around the club building, filling the nearby parking lots and the front yards of some of the houses across the street.  Two of the heads were near enough to Duncan to smile at him, and they looked a little abashed.  “We kinda overdid it.  We got so big, Duncan.  It’s great!  But...”

“They’re so big I can’t shrink them, they can’t shrink themselves... and in a week when the magic starts to fade?”

“They’ll crush the Blue Vixen.  Right.  Up we go.”  Duncan grew to a towering height, then carefully lifted the enormous ring-serpent into the air.  It dwindled in their arms, and when they returned to normal size, Donna showed off her new bracelet.  “What do you think?  Should I keep them like this?”

Ray eyed Donna, as if unsure if she was joking.  Despite her crystalline smile, Donna’s attempt at humor had been stymied by her flat delivery.

The bracelet, however, showed no reservations.  “Yay, keep us!” cried the tiny dragon-heads.  “Are you going to dance?” asked one.

Donna stared down at it.  “Dance?”

Ray frowned.  “Are you okay?  You seem... off.  I mean, you’ve been through almost literal hell, that’s to be expected, it’s just...”

Duncan nodded.  “Our personality is being held together by wishful thinking.”

“And a little bit of ‘if I don’t look down, I won’t fall’?”

“I feel like I should understand that reference,” mused Duncan.  “But it is apt.”

“You really are a mess.  Would another task help?”

“Yes please,” replied Duncan, a little too eagerly.

Ray led them inside.  “I did my best to save the choir, but...  I honestly don’t know if it was good enough.  Can you help them?”

Before they could reach the bodies laid out on the Blue Vixen stage, Colin stormed up to them.  “You said she’d be safe here.”

“Not the time, Colin,” warned Ray.

“No, it’s alright,” said Duncan.  “This place...”  They looked around, memories of it shuffling and resurfacing, sorting into a tattered tapestry.  As the memories shuffled, so did their body, going from an androgynous crystalline statue to a curvy one, fit to be a dancer, though still crazed with cracks and gaps.  “It should be a haven.  Will be again.  Can’t you feel Her presence?”

Ray nodded.  “Vanessa’s gone, though.  Right?  I don’t understand what happened.  One moment she was singing, then... everything was so bright.”

“She gave herself to save the world, to end the demon threat forever.  Ten million tons of Cobalt 60 plasma went through their portal, and it affects them far worse than us.  That is what her sacrifice allowed us to do.”

“Jesus,” breathed Ray.  “You sterilized their world?”

“Yes.”

“You seem... awfully calm for someone who just killed... how many of them?”

Duncan shrugged.  “Ten million or more in combat, plus whatever was on their world.  It had to be done.  I have no remorse for poisoning an ant’s nest, and these things were a far greater threat.”

“I get that, just...  I can’t imagine pulling that trigger.  Are you okay?”

“No.”

“What can we do to help?”

“Distract me from the holes.”  Duncan’s body shifted and creaked as their focus turned to the gaps, more holes opening in it like gaping crystal maws.

Ray raised an eyebrow, and glanced to Colin, who looked away from the display, and back toward the stage.  “Kelly’s here.”  He pointed to the first body in the row.

“No she’s not.  She’s in the pendant you’re holding.”  Duncan reached out for it, and Colin handed it to them.  “Your work, Ray?”

“She was already bound to it.  I just... kind of held her hand until she settled.”

“Well done.  Wake now, Kelly.”

The crystal glowed, flickering with Kelly’s voice.  “Oh!  I’m the pendant again?  Dad?  Why are you crying?”

“You died.”

“I died saving the world, singing my heart out in the most amazing place I know.  Best death ever!”

“It’s not a joke!” growled her father.

“I’m not joking.  If it had been the end of me, no regrets at all.  But it isn’t, is it Donna?  You saved me.”

“Ray saved you,” replied Donna.  “We just woke you from the coma.”

“Thank you Ray,” said Kelly sincerely.  “Um... can I have a body?  My old one is broken and I really really need to give Daddy a hug.”

Donna crooked a finger and one of the headband-controlled bodies walked itself over to them.  She set the Kelly-pendant around its furry neck.  “There.  Good enough?”

“Almost.  It’s a bit... generic?  Could you make the face more... me?”

A feline version of Kelly’s smile soon crossed the body’s muzzle.  “Feels more like home already.”

“Is it really you, baby girl?” asked Colin softly.

“Yes, Daddy.  It’s me.  In the flesh... well, sort of.”  Kelly opened her arms wide and gathered both her father and Donna into a big hug.  There was more than a little sniffling.  Donna smiled awkwardly, but the gaping holes in her body closed to mere cracks.

“There are the others, too,” said Ray.  More bodies lay on the stage, arranged as if at rest with arms crossed on their chest.  “They had headband crystals, and I kind of tried the same thing.”

Duncan studied the first.  “I see that.  I think it was as much their desire to stay as your work, but it did work.  The bodies, though...”

Ray’s nose wrinkled.  “I know.  They’re falling apart.  You can fix it, right?”

“I’ll give them headband bodies, like Kelly.  They can go outside in them, now.”

“But they might prefer...”

Duncan shook his head.  “No.”

More bodies walked from the storage, acquiring familiar faces atop fuzzy feline bodies.  “Do we all have to be catgirls?” asked Silvie.

Duncan’s flat gaze made her shudder and look away.  “Thank you for saving us,” she said softly.

“Thank you for your help,” replied Donna softly.  “It made a hard night... survivable.”

“Survivable?” echoed Colin.  “I’m not so sure.  You’re in a bad way.”

“Yes,” answered Duncan.  “Worse than we can say.  But... functional.”

“Only barely.  And you’re avoiding something.  Something bad.”

Ray shot Colin a worried look.  “Maybe it’s best not to poke...”

“Leaving a wound to fester will make it worse.  Out with it, Donna.”

Donna looked around at the Blue Vixen, gaze empty.  “I don’t remember.  It’s all broken, taken, gone.  I know faces, your name, Ray, Kelly... but I don’t remember...  I danced here, but I can’t...  It’s not there.”

“We can work on that.  Maybe it will come back.  Maybe it won’t.  Do you remember the last hour properly?”

Donna nodded.  “Yes, everything since the fight is clear.  The fight is... less so, like a nightmare that doesn’t connect or make sense.  I remember bits of the night, other nukes, building, meeting Ben Franklin.”

Colin shot a concerned look at Ray.  “Is she delirious?”

“No, that happened.”

“Okay...  What’s the furthest back you remember?”

Donna straighened, her crystal body creaking with sudden strain.  “Anger.  Roiling hot, killing...  Oh God, we started it.  We killed them, because...  Because our family...”

Donna’s head sank, and her body started to fragment, bits falling off and vanishing.  “I don’t remember their faces.”

“I do,” said Ray.  He put a hand in hers, and summoned up memories of Sidney and the kids at his estate.

“Oh!  We were so happy...”  Donna frowned, tugged.  The image Ray was hiding slid to the front.  “They were taken?”

“Yes.  But you rescued them.”

“Oh.  So I did...” said Donna, gaze distant again.  “Where are they now?”

“I...”

Donna’s hand became a claw, talons piercing Ray’s hand and forearm.  “WHERE ARE THEY?”

“I don’t know!” gasped Ray.  “Cooper was with them, then...  Please, you’re hurting me.”

Donna stared down at the blood gushing over their claw.  A flick put it back in place, sealed the wounds with crystal.  They raised their gaze to Ray’s eyes.  “Tell me.”

“Talk to Agent Cooper.  You can reach him.  Mackie can’t.”

Gwen supplied a crystal memory, and suddenly Donna knew exactly where Agent Cooper was.  A small cell, not far from where her family had been kept.  “WHERE ARE THEY.”

Cooper clapped his hands to his ears, but the noise was not coming from outside.  “You’re alive?”

“WHERE!”

“Nearby, last I saw.  Same room as before, under new guards.”

“WHO?”

“Special Service.  They had orders from the president, the new one.  The war was over, and there were... a lot of them.  I’m sorry.”

“Thank you,” said Donna more softly, with barely restrained rage licking at the words.  “My anger is not for you.”

“Please don’t kill her.  One president is enough for one night.”

His only answer was a distant sigh.

A moment later, one of the Special Service men barged into the cell.  “Who was that?”

“Your worst nightmare.  I told you she was making an awful mistake.”

*** *** ***

Acting President Margaret Dupuis stared at the charts.  “How bad is it?”

“So far, containable.  But at this rate, all it’ll take is one good windstorm to irradiate the eastern seaboard.  The dust is already getting into the ocean.  Atlanta’s not quite so bad, the portal there is in a sheltered position.”

“And the attempts to close the portals?  Half of them are already gone, surely it can’t be that hard.”

“We’ve tried everything short of nukes, ma’am.  Bombs outside the portal don’t do enough damage, and if we lob them through they don’t detonate.  It’s pissing our engineers off something awful.”

Margaret chuckled wryly.  “Tell them to keep trying.  Nukes worked in China, but... if we get it wrong, we’ll make matters far worse, yes?”

“Very much so.  All that dust will go everywhere.”

“Merde.  We need a miracle.”

The phone rang.  Margaret frowned at it.  “I told you to hold all my calls.”

“Sorry Ma’am,” came her secretary’s voice through the intercom.  “It’s Faulkner.  You know, the one we nuked three times?”

“He’s still alive?”

“She, and apparently.  Please pick up, I don’t want to be a dog.”

“A what?”  Margaret shook her head and picked up the phone.  “Don’t threaten my secretary.”

“Release our family.  Now.”

“Sorry, what?” asked Margaret.

“You’re holding our family prisoner at Disneyland.”

“For their own safety!  The whole area’s in chaos thanks to the nuke and we’re not going to be able to help much.  Maybe not at all.  Wait, you fixed Washington after their nuke.  Can you...”

“Did you not hear me?  We’re not calling to help you, we’re calling to get my family back.  Or else.”

Margaret’s expression hardened.  “I do not take kindly to being threatened.”

“We haven’t even started,” grated Donna.  “Family first.”

“They’re safe.  All the airports are in chaos with people trying to evacuate, and there are riots everywhere.”

“We don’t care.  We need them back.”

“And I need your mess cleaned up.  Work with me here.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?  We already cleaned up the mess you made nuking the Worldstone.”

“And all your Cobalt 60 is showing up at the portals.  By the ton.  One bad storm and we’ve got radiation plumes going everywhere.”

“We can’t help.  All the death... it’s dangerous.”

“Worse than the radiation?” asked Margaret incredulously.

“Think Galadriel and the Ring, except much, much worse.  I would become a ghoul without even meaning to, and no life would matter to me.”

“Doesn’t sound like it matters now,” muttered Margaret.  “Millions of people will die if we can’t get those portals closed.  Our bombs haven’t worked.”

“Because physics is different on the other side,” answered Duncan.  “Use something simpler.  Compressed gas would probably do it.  The Israelis figured it out, I’m sure you can too.”

“That’s all you can offer for your family’s freedom?”

“You are mistaking this for a negotiation,” snarled Donna.  “It’s not.  If the Moon was still up where you are...”

Margaret looked to her security adviser.  He shrugged.  “Magic is powered by the Moon.  She’s helpless until the next full Moon.”

“We are far from helpless.  You cannot harm us.”

“Not directly.”

There was a grating sound of crystal on crystal.  “You dare threaten my family?  If they are harmed in any way, I will visit unimaginable destruction upon you.”

“Too late.”

“You think you have suffered?  What you have been through is NOTHING.”

“Nothing?” yelled the acting president.  “Nothing?  We’ve lost millions, and millions more are going to die if you don’t get off your ass and help!”

“You will pay dearly for your intransigence.”

“With what?  You’re powerless now.”

Donna’s voice went bitterly cold.  “Now, yes.  But in a month’s time, the full Moon will rise again, and we will rise with it like an avenging star.  We will burn hotter than the Sun and scour your country from coast to coast leaving nothing behind but ash.  Not one living thing will be left to show there ever was a United States of America.  Free my family, or YOU WILL ALL DIE.”

"You're a monster!" gasped Margaret.  "To even consider such a thing..."

"You needed a monster to save the world.  Hello.  We are a soulless abomination that has committed genocide without hesitation.  You're barely more than ants to us.  There is only a small handful of people in this world that we care about.   You're holding most of them hostage.  Do not contact us again until it is to tell us our family is free."

There was a loud screech of shattering crystal and the call ended.

Margaret sat staring at the phone for a very long time.  “Is... can she really make good on that threat?”

“Very likely, Ma’am.”

“What have I done?”  Tears were trickling from her eyes.

“You failed to understand the greater power you are dealing with.  You have a month to put it right.  I would get started now.  Right now.”

“How?”

“They told you.  Free their family.  No strings, no conditions, no gotchas.”

“But we’d have no leverage over them.”

“You never did.  Curry favour, and we may yet get help.”  Mike frowned in thought.  “In fact, they helped us already.  They gave us several new ideas for closing the portals.  I’ll pass that on to the engineers.  You talk to the Israelis.”

Margaret nodded weakly.  “Okay.”

“But free their family first!”

“Will it really save us?” she asked, softly.

“Probably won’t save you.  Might save the rest of us.”

Margaret winced, then picked up the phone.