Doctor Mercurial was awoken by a feeling. Ella’s collar served a purpose, and it was a purpose it had served for many of his new toys. Some started out enthusiastic, but would change their minds after they’d been with him for a few weeks. He needed to know if they approached him in his sleep, or if they tried to run. Merc sighed softly as Ella crept into the room, as quiet as she could be on crutches with which she’d had little practice. He’d seen the signs in her, but still, he’d hoped.

She wasn’t holding her left crutch quite right. There was something in her left hand. Easy to guess. He’d left a variety of pistols where she’d have easy access to them, just in case. He didn’t move, and kept his breathing slow until he head the pistol cock, all the while mentally preparing himself for one all-important magic trick. “Hello, Ella,” he muttered, not opening his eyes. “Tell me what’s bothering you.”

To her credit, Ella kept steady. She was strong, and had prepared herself well. “You’re a murderer, ain’t you? You’re a kidnapper and a rapist. You take people’s bodies, or parts of them, do what you want with them, and throw away the rest.”

Doctor Mercurial opened his eyes, looking calmly and levelly into hers. Beneath the firm determination, there was a hint of desperation. Despite all that she’d seen, she deeply wished she could be wrong. Swan wings framed her underwear-clad body in the meager light. She was painfully beautiful. “We could get hung up on technicalities, but it’s true enough.”

Ella halted a sob in her throat, and though her eyes teared up, she kept them focused on him. “That night you picked me up, were you going to kill me?”

“If you made things difficult.”

She swallowed, and nodded, coming to fully accept things she’d long understood. “That man. Esteban. Why did he come after you?”

The Doctor had wanted to indulge in the full answer to that for days. It helped him just to say it aloud. She seemed prepared to be patient. He stared up at the ceiling and sighed. “You know, at first, that was a mystery to me, too. I’ve taken great pains over the years to try to ingratiate myself to the other magic-users of the world. Seem as harmless to them as possible, never step on any toes. For a lot of them, their first introduction to me was when I killed my teacher. It’s been a very hard reputation to live down.

“So what could it possibly have been? I went through it over and over in my head. Then it clicked. The way his mouth moved. The pattern of sounds. There was one word he was using over and over.

“‘Brother.’”

Ella’s voice quivered as she asked “What’d you do to Esteban’s brother?”

“I didn’t even know he had a brother,” Mercurial replied with sad surrender. “I can only guess. There was a man I picked up at this year’s Hallows’ Eve Ball. He was a mundane who ditched his date and kept grabbing me, so I got him alone, reduced him to his dick, and left him in my dick closet.” He shook his head, mentally cursing himself for being so careless. “I should have known. He didn’t look much like his brother, but enough that I should have seen it.”

“Did that… kill him? Can you bring him back?”

“He’s been a dick for nearly two whole months. There’d be no mind left to bring back.”

Ella shuddered, but was quick to steady her hands, refocusing on her aim. She was clearly working herself up to the next thing she wanted to say. He waited for her.

“All those folks you have in storage. Bring ‘em back and let ‘em go.” She pushed the gun an inch closer. “As many as you can.”

“And if I don’t, you’ll kill me? You can’t return home, now. What kind of life do you want?”

“An honest one,” Ella bit back. “I wanna be a good person. I gotta do what I can.”

“You know…” Merc turned his eyes away, staring at the far wall. “If you kill me, they’ll be lost forever. If you don’t kill me, some of them will come back every now and then. It’s not like this is justice, either. I’ve been at this too long for anything you’re capable of to truly measure up and be ‘justice’.”

“I’d still be stoppin’ you,” Ella resolved. “You won’t be hurtin’ anyone new.”

Mercurial nodded with sad acceptance. “Then it’s decided. Pull the trigger.”

His ears rang, and his left arm ached from the strain of snapping his hand into place to intercept. Doctor Mercurial refocused himself, and four more shots followed.

Grimly, he rolled upright, turning to sit on the edge of the bed, and dropped the bullets to the floor. He didn’t even look at Ella as she slowly lost her balance, dropped to her rear in shock, then curled up, hugging her knee, crying.

“Oh, Ella,” the Doctor sighed. “I had such high hopes for you.”