Satyr Play 03 Pt. 02

Mab wasn't so lucky and shrieked as a spray of acid splashed against her leg. Henry was knicked by one of the blades spinning past his shoulder.

When the floor behind him began to go, he'd spotted Roy one level down. In his panic, he'd opened multiple tears and dropped everyone he could see into Eden.

When the last tear snapped shut, he'd collapsed in exhaustion. He'd been lucky Mab was occupied, keeping a large portion of her floor mostly intact.

He pulled on the energy from the rift within himself and felt his strength slowly returning.

When Baba arrived, his eyes locked on his daughter. Nothing else existed in the world for him at that moment. Their eyes met, and he felt an immediate connection. Her eyes twinkled happily as he smiled at her.

"You've come to interfere again?" Mab hissed.

Baba knelt on a plush area rug and gently laid the babe down, touching her cheek affectionately. Then, she quickly stood and backed away from the child as she made some hand gestures. Henry's head rocked back as he felt a snapping sensation in his horns.

"No. I'm not here to interfere," Baba said softly as she watched Henry sadly.

He watched her with a puzzled expression. This gave way to dread as Baba stepped back into a shadow and disappeared. He looked to Mab and saw the insane glee flare in her green eyes once more.

Henry moved first and got his body between Mab and his daughter. Her hastily flung fireball scorched his left side, but he protected the baby.

The pain was excruciating, and Henry immediately triggered his spell to repair the damage. He barely managed to stay on his hooves as the burnt flesh fell away, and new growth began.

Mab watched his agony with a feverish intensity. His torturous pain seemed to sexually excite her as he clearly saw the impression of her nipples against her clothes. He felt ill from how her face twisted into the most revolting expression. He hated that she was using the face his daughter should have had. He stumbled forward and grabbed her shoulders. Her fingers clawed at the fresh skin on his side, and he lurched forward as she laughed.

The sound cut short as his forehead bumped against hers painfully. He pulled back and saw Mab was struggling to remain conscious. His skull was far denser than hers due to his horns. He jolted back when he noticed the silver thread connecting his horns to the top of Mab's head. He looked back and saw a second thread reaching out and touching the baby's head. He felt the three-way connection activate as a shock, and Mab's eyes flew wide as the thread began to accelerate.

Suddenly, the window behind Mab exploded inwards as Nate pulled his wings in and landed on his feet to run closer.

"HOLD HER, HENRY! HOLD HER!" he yelled, his voice high and tight with tension as he fought his own terror. Nate crashed into Mab's back, and she screamed. Henry looked down and saw the tip of Mab's cursed dagger sticking out of her chest.

When Mab's eyes locked on his, he saw them change from mad green to an innocent blue, filled with pain and confusion.

"NO! NO! NATE, STOP!" Henry yelled, but Nate wrapped his wings around them to keep the dagger in Mab's back. The look on his face was a mix of terror and righteous joy.

Henry watched in horror as the light faded in the innocent blue eyes, and her body shrank and quickly became an infant once again. The silver threads snapped as the process was over.

Nate lurched back and dropped the dagger as the innocent life flooded into him. "What? What? N-n-n-no!" he gasped and shook his head as the gravity of what he'd just done sank into his mind.

Henry sank to his knees, holding the tiny body tenderly against his chest. His mind couldn't contain his grief, and he just made quiet, keening noises.

Now back in her old body, Mab chuckled and reached out her hand. The dagger leapt from the floor to her, the grip slapping against her palm.

"My darling Nate! You've returned my beloved blade to me! Thank you!" she purred with a wide grin.

He turned toward her, his expression twisting between terror and rage. He turned and leapt out the broken window.

"Henry, Henry, Henry. Dry your tears. This was always destined to happen. The child had only one purpose, and even that failed. The truth is, ultimately, everyone ends up disappointing you, even your beloved Baba." She ran her fingers down her body, and she was suddenly wearing a very provocative skin tight dress. "It feels so good to be in a body linked to magic that obeys!"

Henry was lost. His daughter was dead. She'd died in his hands. His heart felt like it might shrivel up and die.

He opened up a small rift on the floor before him, and Xiong looked up at him in surprise. Henry gently lowered the little body into the hands of the glass being and spoke to him through the magic they shared. "She was my daughter, and I failed her. Please lay her to rest... someplace beautiful."

The sadness returning from Xiong almost shattered Henry's control. The elder accepted the small bundle and nodded. Henry closed the tear.

He stood slowly to face Mab. The only thing left for him to do was kill this evil creature. Nothing else mattered.

Mab's expression of delighted surprise wasn't what he expected to see, but she quickly clued him in.

"Oh, Baba, you shouldn't have! This is too delicious!" she burst into manic giggles as Henry stared at her.

She looked up at him with tears of joy in her eyes. "My sweet Henry, or should I say... Stanley."

She held her right hand up, and Henry finally understood the scope of Baba's final betrayal.

The ring.

Mab was wearing the cursed ring.

"Time to say goodbye to your retched Humanity!" she giggled with supreme delight.

He watched her wide smile as she spun the ring one way around.

Henry couldn't cross the space between them in time to stop her.

Time!

He had no idea how to activate the temporal energy stored in his horns, but he focused all of his will on them with one simple command: Stop.

Mab's evil grin was filled with her madness as she spun the ring back, slowly, then slower still until she just froze.

Henry tried to surge forward but couldn't move, though his mind was still active.

"Didn't I tell you not to mess with time magic?" Baba growled as she walked into view from behind him.

"You need to stop her!" Henry exclaimed and realized he was standing outside of his body. This felt familiar, as he'd been outside his body so often. He immediately moved to Mab's side and tried to pull her fingers away from the ring, but it was like pushing a mountain. He turned to look back at Mab. "Help me!"

"What makes you think I can do what you cannot?" she asked scornfully. "What makes you think I'd want to if I could?"

He frowned at her. "You can do things no one else can. You reached back in time and pulled me forward like you did the others!"

Baba shook her head. "I did nothing of the sort. You can't go back in time. That's proven to be impossible, even for me. You can go forward, though. I pushed you and the others forward to my present self, who knew when and where to collect you from the time stream. That your horns would collect the temporal energy surprised me."

Henry shook his head. "Right, the temporal energy in my horns. I've seen it age and de-age someone. Isn't that going forward and backward in time?"

"Don't be stupid! Those are only local area effect spells modifying the state of an object or person within the field. It follows the stored memory in cells to revert to previous states and predictive algorithms to project their future states. Only temporal energy can power that spell," Baba snapped. She looked to Mab. "She used it to good effect at her party."

He sighed as this wasn't what he wanted to talk about now. "What's stopping me from preventing her from spinning the ring?"

"You are. You've moved into a state where you perceive this one moment in time. Changing the state of an object or a person is not possible without involving time. Truthfully, you can't stop time as that's impossible too."

"So, if I unfreeze my perception of time, she completes her action, and I die. Stanley Garin will flash into and out of being," he said softly.

"Yes, along with Humankind," she concluded.

"I'm doing my best to keep from asking the question you won't answer," Henry said with a frown and sighed. "What do you have against Humans?"

Baba held his eyes. "Nothing at all. I used to be one long ago. Now, they're just part of a bargain I need to be free from," she said wearily.

At Henry's exasperated look, she sighed. "Henry, how old do you think I am?"

He frowned. "You know I can't accurately guess stuff like that."

She nodded with the smallest smile. "Let's just say I'm one of the originals." She looked to Henry to see if he would protest the vague answer, but he just watched her.

"I once had a son. He got sick. He was dying. I... made an arrangement. He would survive, and I would live and remember. I watched him grow up, get old, and die. I was cast out when I outlived so many. I learned many things and grew in power. Gaining so many years means losing much as well. Important things, so I made a plan." She nodded in satisfaction.

Henry watched her carefully and saw the weariness in her eyes. This was the most open she'd ever been with him, ever. He suspected this was only because she saw her release from her unnaturally extended life once he released his hold on the moment.

As if reading his mind, she frowned at him. "Your moment is almost up. Time is moving forward regardless of your wishes," Baba scolded him gently.

He watched her. "Thank you, Baba."

She looked at him in surprise.

"Thank you for taking care of me... to the best of your abilities," he said gently.

She snorted softly as she gave him a troubled look.

"No, I understand now I was just a part of your exit strategy... but my life had more good moments than bad, and ultimately, I found love. That's a treasure for me," he explained.

Baba stared at him, and her lip twitched. She nodded, and that looked like a twitch as well. "You're too soft-hearted. That's why you refused to willingly spin the ring when you were given the opportunity to end this."

He smiled at her. "Perhaps, but I stand by that decision. There are too many beautiful and loving people in the world. People who would do anything to protect their loved ones. That's the most profound demonstration of love."

Baba's tick was back. "I said I wouldn't interfere..."

He felt it. The moment passed, and the ring's turning sequence was complete. Henry released his hold on his perception of time, and as his observation of it slowed to real-time, he felt the beginnings of the dragon bone glamor activating. Reality twisted, but this time, he felt himself tearing apart. He'd never felt this kind of pain before during a transition. He was being peeled apart! He felt a thinning of his being, a hollowing out of his core, and a sensation like being dragged across a cheese grater.

The torture wasn't just physical. He wasn't ready to go. Images of Sandy, Tish, and Dayshia flashed through his mind, and he wanted to hold them again. Camila, Sigrid, and Marisa appeared in his last thoughts. Roy, his surrogate dad. Meixiu, Mahati, and Siobhan. His child with Tish who would never meet her father as he'd missed out on his own.

It wasn't fair.

A shock shot from his scalp to his toes, leaving him lightheaded.

Time froze once more, but this time, he saw Baba doing it, pulling him into the bubble of her moment.

She was also streaming energy into him, and his head felt like a balloon being overfilled until there was a flash, a pop, and he was back. Implanted images flickered past the back of his eyes quicker than he could comprehend them, but they seemed intensely important. His muscles twitched like they were reacting to the images.

Then everything went still.

Henry was facing Mab, but behind her, in the shadows, stood Baba.

Standing next to her was someone he never expected to see again.

Stanley.

A shock went through Henry's body as he locked eyes with his former self. Their minds instantly linked, and they realized what Baba had done. Henry had no memories before returning from Ireland, and Stanley had no memories of what happened after. Stanley was completely Human, while Henry was one hundred percent Satyr. She'd split them so Henry could live on.

Henry knew they had less than a moment, so he plunged his mind into Stanley's memories, imprinting a copy in his mind as he shared everything he was in return.

Stanley suddenly pushed him from his mind as he smiled weakly. "Goodbye—"

He was gone.

Henry looked to Baba and saw her old eyes closing with a look of absolute peace, something he'd never seen in them before.

Then she was gone, too.

The frozen moment ended, and reality slammed into Henry, making him stumble.

Mab's smile was ripped away as she looked at Henry with incredulous outrage. "No... NO! You were supposed to disappear! All of Humanity was supposed to DIE!"

Reeling from losing a significant and important part of himself, Henry struggled to focus on Mab. She glared at her finger as she spun the ring repeatedly. Except, it no longer functioned. The curse had been triggered, and there was no provision for his existence afterward.

Henry rocked with the horror of what that meant.

Humanity was gone?

-=-

Gunnery Sergeant Chris Endale stood on the small section of intact flooring, watching the confusing shit happening on the floor a level above and ahead of them. His mind wasn't tracking what was happening at all. This was impossible shit. People couldn't just appear and disappear in shadows. People couldn't grow from baby to adult in seconds, either. It was making his skin crawl.

The freak who pushed him into the other world was crying over the dead body of a child and lowered it through the floor. His nerves frayed from witnessing yet another impossible act. He grit his teeth in a feral snarl.

The hot redhead woman on the upper level was babbling nonsense about saying goodbye to humanity as she did something with her hands.

Dulane was standing between Endale and Yablonski behind the three women. When the only fully human member of their group vanished, only the two silver men witnessed his empty uniform fall quietly to the floor. They stared, stunned by the finality and cruelty of this impossible act, and it was just too much for Chris.

He lifted his eyes to look into the shocked and enraged expression of the other Silver Soldier. They shared a look, and Endale made hand gestures indicating the outer walls. Yablonski nodded stiffly, and they prepared their attack.

-=-

Henry caught sight of a silver streak running along the wall's intact remains behind Mab. It leapt across a gap to land on the floor close to her. It was the marine, and he was in a rage. He surged forward, and for the briefest second, Mab faded slightly as she spun with the dagger. The marine grabbed her as he raced by, but his hands passed through her instead. Her blade slashed through the man's wide neck. He stumbled wildly, and his momentum carried him into the path of a second Silver Soldier rushing around from the other side. They collided, and both went out the window at speed.

Henry looked to where they must have come from and saw a third Silver Soldier turning to kneel before an empty army uniform. The image was etched indelibly in his mind as proof the curse had worked.

His eyes went to Lorelei, watching him with a wide-eyed, terrified expression. Then he saw the old Fae on her hands and knees, mumbling and watching Mab with murder in her eyes. Her hands were glowing slightly.

Henry knew he wasn't done. Mab planned to kill everyone. He had to stop that.

He moved toward her, and Mab pointed the dagger at him. His eyes focused on the weapon that drank his daughter's life. He surged forward.

Mab tried to run forward, too, but realized her feet were stuck to the floor. She flicked a glance at the Investigator, who was using the last of her strength and magic to cast a binding spell. She'd deal with the traitor later.

She focused back on Henry, who was almost in range but making no effort to protect himself. Stupid and sloppy! He wasn't a fighter. Once he was too close to avoid it, she thrust the deadly blade at his heart.

Its edge never touched his skin. Henry opened a small tear directly before the point of Mab's blade and her hand followed the cursed weapon as it plunged into molten rock. He immediately released the tear, severing the hand from her now burning wrist.

She screamed until his big hands grabbed her shoulders once more in a bruising grip. Her eyes flew wide as he yanked her forward to ram his forehead against hers, with all his strength this time.

Old bone shattered under the intense impact, and Mab's body stiffened, then went completely lax as he threw her to the floor at his hooves. Curling his lip in disgust, he stepped back before he dropped her body into another lava flow on Eden. He strained to hold the rift open long enough to watch the molten rock consume her corpse in the roaring flames.

Once the tear snapped closed, the building shifted again, the last of the magic that kept it together quickly draining away without Mab to maintain it. Henry flung out a hand to open a tear next to Lorelei and the soldier, red grasses showing below. The soldier had the presence of mind to tackle the tall brunette as she leapt through the tear before the floor collapsed, taking the dying Fae Investigator down into the darkness.

Henry was done. Mab was dead. He hadn't been able to stop her from killing off Humanity. That weighed tremendously on his soul, but he'd saved the rest. He stumbled back and watched the enormous stone slabs fall from the ceiling above. The cascade had begun from the center of the building but was rapidly getting closer as he staggered back.

Maybe... maybe being buried under the stones of a magic castle was the proper conclusion for the man who'd failed to save Humanity.

The impact of the stone which swung down from above, struck his horns and pitched him out the open window behind him. Dazed, he felt the sharp pain of hitting the roof's edge, then the gentle caress of the wind as he fell. His consciousness mercifully slipped away well before he reached his final destination of the street below.

Epilogue

The horrors of the Skyfall Event would never be forgotten by the survivors.

What surprised most people in the days that followed was how little panic and chaos resulted from it. Not that there weren't some localized outbursts of fear and violence. But even these were short-lived, and calm returned quickly as if the people had no stomach for it after so much loss.

This reserved behavior made it possible for life to move forward and a semblance of normality to return to the lives of those left behind.

But not everything remained as it was before.

Answers are needed when an estimated three billion human beings suddenly and simultaneously disappear, leaving their clothes, watches, and jewelry behind.

The evangelicals immediately exclaimed it was the Rapture, the worthy being taken to heaven, while those that remained were unworthy.

On the opposite side of the crazy coin were the UFO enthusiasts/Alien abduction conspiracy theorists who claimed the missing were now enslaved on far-off planets.

The rationalists didn't know what to believe, which somehow seemed worse.

Regardless of what was believed, three billion people were gone, and that number was a rough estimate as a new census would be required for an accurate count.

To add a spritz of lemon juice to that wound, some people were no longer... people. Initially, the number was small, but as the days passed, people succumbed in increasing numbers to a strange ailment. They would spontaneously lose consciousness and transform before the eyes of onlookers. These transformed people's new shapes and sizes were often shocking and could have led to panic amongst the populace, but again, somehow didn't. Sociology pundits theorized it was potentially because people knew they could be next, and behaving positively instead gave people comfort and hope.