225 - Rebellion

Dewie’s knee bobbed anxiously inside the Road Rocket.

He was staring out the windows, his hands folded in his lap because he was trying not to bite his nails. They were already short, round little nubs in his fingers, and his mother would kill him if they got any shorter. 

“What if it’s not really her?” Xena muttered for what felt like the five-thousandth time.

When Dewie looked over at her, she was freely biting her nails while watching the video of Lexie appearing on her black screen.

She’d watched the video a thousand times already. Dewie didn’t know what she was expecting to change on this viewing, but he didn’t interrupt her. 

“Lionel says that sometimes Eldritch can take the form of something else,” she continued. “Like something they've seen or felt or eaten. What if it's just an Eldritch that ate Lexie?”

Dewie could have done without the visual in his head. He wished that Xena would stop thinking and talking about stuff like that, but that seemed to be the only way to calm her nervous energy. 

He wished they would just get there already. 

It was hard enough getting off-campus.  

They didn’t realize how hard it would be at first, because neither of them had gone home during the breaks. They hadn't left campus since Vacek gave them a new security detail, so they didn't realize how much protocol was required before they could leave.

For starters, it was too complicated for the two of them and twelve of their security guards to simply use teleportation orbs to go to Hovleton. They had to travel to the nearest hero headquarters, where they had a much larger room that could teleport up to twenty people at a time. 

The teleport got them to the branch of the hero headquarters in Arcadia, and from there, they’d taken a full-loaded security vehicle to Hovelton. 

“If it’s a demon, Vacek would have told us, right?” Xena spoke up again. “I mean, he wouldn’t let us go through all the trouble of coming here if it wasn’t really Lexie?”

“Eldritch,” Dewie commented, unfolding and refolding his hands.

“What?”

“You said demon. Lexie doesn’t like it when you call them that. They’re Eldritch.”

“Oh. Right.” She didn’t really sound like she cared one way or another, too stuck in her anxious thoughts. “But it has to be Lexie. It has to.”

“I don’t know.” Dewie gave up and started biting the edge of his left pinkie finger. Maybe his mother wouldn’t notice that one. “But I hope so.”

If it wasn’t Lexie…he didn't know what he would do. Probably cry.

Dewie was scared. What if he’d gotten his hopes up to have it sink again?

No, it would be fine. Even if it wasn't really Lexie, it didn't mean she was dead. It just meant he would be going into the dungeon to save her anyway.

It would all be fine. Everything would be fine.

“Everything will be fine, Xena,” Dewie said out loud. “Trust me."

She nodded but didn't look very trusting. The rest of their guards said nothing.

They were always silent and invisible, and it used to creep Dewie out at first, but he’d gotten used to it.

Eventually, they got on the winding road to Aiden’s cottage.

Dewie’s heart was beating so loud it felt like it was going to beat out of his chest. 

“It has to be her,” Xena whispered to herself one more time. “It has to be.”

Dewie nodded resolutely. It has to be.

He ignored the creatures he saw lurking on the path to Lexie’s home. At this point, he saw things everywhere, and most of them didn’t matter. 

The second the vehicle stopped and the child lock deactivated, both Dewie and Xena were running out of the car. Aiden’s door was closed, and after Xena tried to open it without luck. Then she banged on it.

“Mr Sparrowfot!” Xena called. “Aiden! It’s Xena!’

It took only a few seconds for the door to open, and it wasn’t Aiden opening it. It was her mom. 

“Xena! I tried calling you but–”

“Is Lexie here?” she asked, in a hurry to confirm everything. Dewie also felt the same urgency.

“Yes, she’s here, but–”

Xena didn’t wait to listen to the rest. She pushed past her mother into the room and released a loud gasp. 

Dewie followed her, and he too gasped when he saw Lexie.

It was just like in the video.

She was so thin. Her hair was so tangled and messy that his mother would have an aneurysm if she saw it. She was also wearing a weird, robe-like clothing that looked like something the Fae would wear. It was dirty and bloody, and she looked a complete mess.

But her face was Lexie. Her eyes were calm and warm, while she gave them a crooked smile.

"Hi," she said.

Relief flushed through Dewie’s body until something flashed above Lexie’s head. He couldn’t see it clearly, but it flashed again when Xena moved, running and leaping onto Lexie with a choked cry.

“You stink so bad,” Xena sobbed.

“Yeah,” Lexie said. “I stopped smelling myself a while ago.” Her voice was hoarse, and her face rippled with emotion, though she didn't cry.

Xena was full-on bawling while Max, Luke, Aiden, and Emma looked on.

Dewie, held back, even though he was crying too.

He didn't know what to say or do. He’d dreamt of this moment so many times, held out hope for so long, but now that he was here…he didn’t know what to do with it.

It was his turn to doubt.

Was she really Lexie or an Eldritch that had eaten her?

He tried to evaluate her from afar, and he also didn’t want to interrupt them.

But then Lexie looked up at him and said in a very Lexie-like voice, “Dewster. What are you doing? Come here.”

With that, he was running into her arms too.

It was while he was blubbering all over her that he saw it again. It flashed above Lexie’s head, and he once again couldn’t tell exactly what it was.

But from this angle, it looked a little like a guillotine.

***

Showering was an experience.

Lexie had long forgotten what it felt like to have water on her skin, washing away what looked like years of dirt and grime.

It wasn’t unpleasant, it just felt different.

She also finally caught sight of herself in the bathroom mirror. Now she saw why everyone was so alarmed and why Emma had been cooking nonstop since she got here.

Lexie was basically skin and bones.

Whatever Ryn had been giving her had kept her a step away from looking like a walking skeleton, but she was still pretty emaciated, with bones poking out of her skin everywhere she looked. Not to mention, she was pale under all the dirt, her skin having an almost purplish tint.

“Yeesh,” she said. She did look more than a little terrifying and not in an Eldritch way.

Luckily, she wasn't quite as frail as she looked, thanks to her Eldritch DNA, but she needed to keep up her human appearance, too. Which meant eating human food and drinking water.

The potato soup had been good. The leftover cookies had been better. Aiden said he hadn't baked much since she'd been gone, since neither he nor Tate had much of a sweet tooth.

Now Lexie was back, though, he said he would make her a whole batch of cookies for dinner while she showered.

After the long shower, Lexie attempted to detangle her hair, but it was a hopeless case.

Her hair was matted and would probably have to be shorn off to her scalp.

Or at least she thought so, until Aiden popped into her room while she tried to brush her hair and told her that he could get it untangled. 

“How?” she asked him

He winked at her and said, “Magic.”

With that, he sent some of his alchemy dust into her hair, and seconds later, it was hanging down her back in waves again.

Lexie then took a pair of scissors and cut it to shoulder length, which she preferred. Then she stared back in the mirror.

She looked like herself again.

But her eyes, they were different. The Eldritch within peeked around the corners.

After she got dressed, Aiden and Lexie went downstairs to find the cottage full of people now. Frank and Merryweather had arrived along with a few of the nurses from the hospital. They all dragged Lexie into tearful hugs one by one, except for Frank, who simply patted her on the back and said, “I knew it! I knew those Knife-eared bastards couldn’t get rid of you that easily.”

"She got stuck in a dungeon, Frank," Merryweather said. “It had nothing to do with the Fae.”

“Ah, but that’s exactly what they want you to think. It’s all an elaborate plan, you see, and it started with Max.”

“Don’t drag me into your delusions,” Max commented. He still hadn’t moved from the couch, even though Lexie could tell he was itching to get away from the crowd. Or maybe he was just itching to get to Cecilia, to see if she was really okay. 

"I told you, little girl," Frank said to Lexie. "What did I say? I said you would be our Hovelton-bred genius who's going to start a revolution, didn't I? And that's exactly what you did. You are a symbol of the rebellion. You stuck it to those snotty, Fae creeps."

"Frank..." Ema scolded.

"But it's true! Only our Lexie would survive in a dungeon for months and figure out how to teleport out of there. Now everyone's going to want a piece of you. Don't worry. We'll keep them away."

Lexie wasn't quite sure how Frank planned to do that, but she told him thanks anyway.

Aiden stepped out to check on Tate, and while he was gone, Rose and Evan arrived.

Evan seemed to have grown like five inches since Lexie last saw him. He was a lot quieter now, too, and greeted her shyly, which was a far cry from his usual boisterous personality. 

Rose, on the other hand, hugged Lexie for almost as long as Emma did. She told Lexie she was happy to see her back. So many people were happy to see her back, and it was overwhelming being surrounded by all of them. 

But not in a bad way.

Terry and Glinda arrived next to see Lexie, with Glinda not believing it was really Lexie. She grilled her for about ten minutes on things only the real Lexie would know until Terry told her to cut it out and give Lexie a big hug.

Eventually, Aiden returned with Tate in tow. No one seemed surprised to see him, and everyone seemed to already know who Tate was. Frank even managed to drag him into the argument he was having with Merryweather, because he apparently took Tate’s silent reticence for support.

The party grew as more people showed up, including the Sheriff and Max’s guild mates. Bane gaped at Lexie for a full minute when he saw her, then he shook his head and said to Max, “Man. Your family is really something.”

“Aren’t we?” Max said, giving Lexie a proud look. “Must be our genetics.”

Lexie almost pointed out that they weren’t related by blood, but she didn’t want to rain on his parade. 

More folks showed up, and the party had to be moved out to the front yard.

Some of the people Lexie did not recognize. They were probably newcomers in town or friends of the other townspeople. They didn't speak to her. They simply stared at her from a distance in awe, and Lexie wondered if they were maybe just people who came over to catch a glimpse of her and make sure she was real.

No one mentioned what had happened in the dungeon yet. Nor did they ask Lexie how she got out.

If anyone even alluded to it, Emma would shoot them a fierce glare. Frank was the first to be on the receiving end of that. Glinda was the second.

Leie felt pulled here and there, but she spent most of her time with Xena and Dewie, mostly because Dewie was giving her a weird stare and Xena didn’t seem to want to leave her side.

It was unfortunate, though, that being around Xena made Lexie feel slightly nauseous. 

She knew why. It was because Xena was subconsciously exuding her light powers, which made Lexie's Eldritch side a little uncomfortable. It had never been like that before, but Lexie's Eldritch had grown, and so had Xena's light.

Her light seemed to be naturally repellent to Lexie. She wondered if Xena was doing it intentionally, repelling Eldritch, or if that was simply the nature of her light.

Were all Lightlarks like that?

She would find out eventually. Lexie stuck by Xena despite the nausea because she didn't want to start avoiding her friend. But she knew it would get worse once she got her full Eldritch back, and Lexie would need to figure out a way to deal with it then.

Dewie also kept staring at her, not in a hostile way but in a way that signified that he was looking for something.

"What's up?" she asked him when they went to the kitchen to get more cookies. "You keep staring at me."

"It's because there's something on your head."

"Something?"

"Yeah. A guillotine."

She blinked. "Wait, you're seeing things again?"

"Yeah, but I don't know what it means yet. I've been working on my powers with Xena. Her powers help me make sense of my powers, but not always. The more I look at something, the more likely it is to work, though."

"But Xena isn't using her powers now."

"She doesn't have to. Sometimes, just being around her is enough."

Yeah, especially now, when Xena was smiling and oozing light like nobody's business.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," she said to him. “I believe in you.”

He beamed at her. "I'm so happy that you're back, Lexie."

She extended her hand and gave him a half-hug. "I know. I'm happy too."

Eventually, Lexie started getting tired of the crowd, and Aiden was the first to notice. 

“The Firbringers wanted to come over." Aiden pulled her aside to tell her. “But I figured this place was enough of a circus. I told them I would bring you over tomorrow.”

"Sounds good," Lexie said.

"You're tired, aren't you?"

"A little."

Aiden straightened, then clapped his hands loudly and said, “Hello, everyone. Now, I appreciate all of you being here today, but Lexie is very tired, and I'm sure she could use a nap. So, we'll be wrapping up this get-together right about now."

"Aww," A few people groaned as they started shuffling to say their last goodbyes.

Lexie received it with less enthusiasm than before.

She wasn’t actually sleepy, but she was tired of people being around her, and she was relieved when they all started saying their goodbyes. 

Xena and Dewie wanted to sleep over, but the invisible men and women who said they were their bodyguards vetoed that idea. 

“Vacek wants you back on campus before it gets late,” a dark-haired, freckled man said. "No excuses."

"Why?" Lexie asked.

“Because there's an active threat to their lives. Especially Dewie's."

"Vacek thinks the man who got rid of Lucy Frank will try to get rid of us, too," Xena explained.

Vulcan? It made sense. Given that Dewie was now using his powers, they could potentially be a threat to Vulcan's. He probably wanted to hurt Dewie now.

Lexie would never let that happen.

She felt the familiar hunger grow in her, despite the suppression of her mana.

She'd find Vulcan and kill him first.

Hmm. A thought hit her.

Lexie wondered if she somehow could use Dewie’s magic to find him. Dewie's magic was so far very passive, but what if she could use it to make a card that would predict how close or far away Vulcan was? Or one that would simply tell them where he was.

Could that work?

Lexie needed to understand Dewie's magic first, but with some evaluation, she should manage it.

It looked like the Dewie deck was back on the agenda for now.

"Tell Vacek they can stay here tonight,” Lexie said. “They’ll be safe with me, and I'll accompany them back after our meeting in the morning."

"Vacek said–"

“Trust me.” Lexie interrupted. "Just call him and see what he says."

The bodyguard's lips tightened, and he walked away to make the call.

In the end, though, Lexie got her way and her friends slept over.

They talked through most of the night while eating sickening amounts of snickerdoodles. The other two didn’t ask Lexie about the dungeon at first.

They talked about school and how awful Lexie's memorial had been, and how Dewie and Ava were kind of friends after he saved her life. They also talked about how people thought Dewie was cool now, and how Rufina got an even stupider haircut, and how Xena's first meeting with the Fae council was so boring she'd nearly popped an eye out.

They didn't run out of things to talk about, but the other two eventually got sleepy, and they dozed without once mentioning the dungeon.

Lexie knew they were avoiding it for her benefit because they were worried they were going to traumatize her.

Lexie didn’t want them to be worried about it anymore. 

"It was fine,” she said in the silence.

"What was fine?" Xena asked sleepily.

“The dungeon it was…it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” she said. "So you don't have to worry and skirt around it. I can talk about it if you want."

"I don't want to," Xena said instantly. "It was awful for us. We thought you were dead."

"We thought we would never see you again," Dewie concurred quietly in a melting tone, and before Lexie knew it, her friends were crying again.

They cried themselves to sleep, but Lexie didn't sleep that night, though. She stayed awake, holding hands with her friends, her mind busy with thoughts.

***

“We don’t know what you are."

"What?” Lexie asked.

She had shown up to the Hero Association bright and early. She was sitting in the evaluation room, full of screens and tubes and a necromancer-Saint that she’d never met before. Her father and Vacek were also there, while Dewie and Xena waited in the waiting area.

The Saint had plugged Lexie into a few machines that read her soul, and he came back with...nothing?

"Her anatomy is human," he said. "Her soul is...something more than just human. And her mana is completely incomprehensible."

“Does it show her to be possessed by an Eldritch?" Vacek asked.

“No. It doesn’t seem like it. But…”

But what…”

“Her magic is strange. It doesn’t feel like anything we have, and the machine keeps registering it as an error. It’s hard to tell what her level is or even how much mana she has. Everything about her is a little alien to us, even though she is human."

Speaking of levels, Lexie suddenly remembered she had a few dungeon points that she hadn't used yet. She also had a bunch of gold and mana stones in her inventory. Could she use that right now?

“Can we get her system working again?" Aiden asked.

"Not without ambassadorial access," Vacek said, and he rubbed his forehead and sighed. "It's fine. We'll just give them concessions–"

Before he could finish, the door was thrown open.

Lexie immediately jumped to her feet, anticipating an attack, and so did Aiden.

Three Fae males, and Ryn stood at the entrance.

"Ambassador," Vacek rose to his feet calmly, despite the tension. "What is the meaning of this?"

"We are very sorry to interrupt," the large, muscular one in the middle said. "But we must cut this reunion short to deal with very important matters. Lexie Sparrowfoot, you must come with us."

Lexie gave each of them a single evaluating look and lifted her chin in the air. "No."