Page 3 of Forging Bonds: Part One

"If you had an idea of who it is, and I mean a really good idea, then there is something that some guys on my team at the labs have been working on that can, in theory, de-glamor someone," Doc says.

"Seriously?" Raiden asks, curiosity sparking in his eyes. "How does it work? What is it, a weapon or spell?" He frowns, "And what do you mean in theory?"

I smile, trust Raiden to ask the important questions.

Doc smiles, "I'm not entirely sure about the ins and outs of the project, as I wasn't directly involved in it, but we can find out easily enough. When we drop the flash drive to Ty tomorrow, we can stop in and ask them about it."

"That sounds good. We may as well since we're already there," River says.

"The reason why I said that in theory it should be able to de-glamor someone, is because it is still in testing, and it hasn't officially been tested out on someone yet," Doc explains. "If they become aware that we need it though, then they will speed it up for us, and unless there is something else that needs to take precedence, then they should hopefully put it to the top of the list, and then we can put it to use as soon as we get out of the Choosing."

"I think that would definitely be something that we need to talk to them about tomorrow," Evander agrees.

We all fall silent for a moment.

"He started the war," River says solemnly, his mind clearly on what we saw in the vision. "The king warned him what would happen if he carried on pursuing it, and he obviously did. He caused the imbalance and started the war."

"Was the war fought with hybrids?" I ask with a frown.

Griff shakes his head, "No, none of them had the characteristics of hybrids from what I could tell, and we know that he is still trying to make hybrids and failing, so we know that he can't have made an army out of them."

"My guess would be that they are people who were fooled into believing his cause," Raiden suggests. "We have no idea what he said to them in order to get them to believe that fighting against the Crown was a good idea."

"Yeah, I guess that's true. We may never know actually, since no one can talk about what happened," Reed points out with a frown.

"It all sounds rather complicated to me, Dears," Ethel says from the kitchen. "I think that you have all been through a lot today, and you need to focus on eating and getting warm. I would be willing to bet that you will be rather busy for a while, take a break while you can. All of the problems will still be there tomorrow."

The cupboards open and close, and I'm going to assume that it's House agreeing with Ethel.

I smile, "A very good point, Ethel. We have done all we can tonight. There isn't anything else that we can do apart from eat this food that smells delicious and get some much-needed rest."

"Agreed," Doc replies, and everyone else nods in agreement.

The conversation moves away from the serious topics and onto lighter things as we all tuck into the delicious food that House has made for us and somehow has kept warm.

∞∞∞

The following day, everyone is packed up and loading the van reasonably early. I called Sully late last night and gave him the rundown of the vision and everything that has happened since, including the Choosing, and to say that he was pissed was an understatement.

He was fucking livid.

Leaving the guys to finish packing the van, I head into the kitchen to say goodbye to Ethel. As always, when I leave here, there is a sense of sadness, and I don't want to go. I never do.

I hate leaving House and Ethel, especially since I know that no one else comes to see them when I'm not here because both House and Ethel terrify everyone who tries and is more likely to attack rather than to let anyone in. I think they would behave the same even if I told them that it was okay to let people stay here.

I have no idea how long it's going to be until I can come back. It was over a year, I think, between the last visits. I do hope that it's not going to be that long this time. Now that the thought has occurred to me and I have realized that thanks to SID, I have money and I could potentially buy this place, which means I would officially be able to call it mine. I want to come back so that we can work out who owns it and if it's even possible for me to buy it, even more than I ever have before.

Of course, that's dependent on when we get some time off, and now we have the Choosing to go through as well as trying to work out the hybridsituation, it's not going to happen any time soon. I say 'we' have to go through the Choosing, but really, it's me. The guys have to be there as well because they are one of the teams that are interested in having me on their team, but I have to do several tasks or tests, I'm not really sure what to refer to them as, by myself. I know I should be terrified of them; I have watched a Choosing with Dimitri, and it was brutal. I remember asking him if they were trying to kill the supes on it, and he said that it's designed to push them to the very edge of what they think they are capable of and then drag them past that, so while it isn't intended to kill the supes that are involved in it, supernaturals can die.

I'm not a supernatural.

Well, I am, and although my supernatural side has made an appearance in the power boom that it caused when I was pushed into the barrier by that damn tree, which I had forgotten about until now. Huh. Anyway, other than that, and maybe another instance where it flared, that's all the magic that I apparently have, and I have no fucking control over it or know what kind of supernatural I am. So, I'm pretty much human.

Which can't be a good thing to be for the Choosing.

Of course, since my life can't appear to be anything but really complicated, the issue with the Choosing isn't just because I'm not fully supernatural, it's also because HID thinks I'm dead. In fact, they are pretty much sure that I am since they blew me up with a bazooka. They are working with a supernatural that actually now that I'm thinking about it, I'm reasonably sure is most likely the blue fucker from the vision. HID appears to be handing any supernaturals that they find over to this guy, presumably to make hybrids or some of those zombie soldiers that he had in the clearing when I died saving Reed.

Oh shit.

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