Candace scrambled to her feet. Throwing off her hotel robe, she snatched her silver dress from a chair and frantically wriggled into it. The laid-back atmosphere had evaporated, leaving behind the sharp, cold reality of an awful, gut-wrenching crisis.

Losing Nessy again.

The thought wasn't rational; it was a primal, instinctual certainty that clawed at me from that deep, tree-like part of my soul. It was the same hollow ache I'd felt in those fragmented dreams, the echo of a loss so profound it had survived the death of a universe.

I wouldn't, couldn't, let it happen again.

The Krishna temple with its Astral-fungi infected monks was revealed to be a horrific problem far too big for a single human and his pack of four prads to handle.

There was only one move, one desperate gambit that had any chance of working. I grabbed my phone, fingers tapping on the cracked screen to locate the contact number of Principal Kerberos.

"What are you doing?" Adelle asked, now fully dressed and strapping her newly-bound armor over her outfit.

"Making a deal with a devil," I replied, pressing the call button.

The phone rang twice. The deep, familiar voice of the old dog answered before I even said anything. "Mr. Foster. To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?"

"I have a proposition for you," I said.

"I'm listening," Kerberos replied.

"You want me to go on your Omnithornia field trip, yes?" I stated. "You want me to cooperate with you, endure more interviews from Omnicorp Agents?"

"An astute observation."

"Then you're going to help me. As much as you are able. Show me that you can be trusted," I took a deep breath.

"Help you with?"

"My packmate, Nessy Whitepaw, is being held against her will by the Krishna monks at the LoomCo bookstore in Moonshard Plaza."

"And you wish for me to intervene?" Kerberos asked.

"I want you, Professor Fern and her TA to come there ASAP and assist me in taking back what belongs to my pack," I said firmly. "Use your authority. Get Fern to bring all of her Elementals. Use whatever power you have. Do that, and I'll go on your fieldtrip. I'll even smile for the promotional photos or whatever."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. I could almost picture the half-Omnid weighing his options.

"That is a... compelling offer, Mr. Foster," he said finally. "Lucky for you Miss Fern and her TA are in my office right now. We will meet you at the plaza in five minutes."

I hung up and texted Kristi to get to the Moonshard Plaza asap as Nessy was in danger of being mind-wiped by Krishna monks and then looked up at the fox and cheetah.

"Adelle, can you get us to Moonshard Plaza quickly?"

"I can shadowstep there, yeh," she affirmed. "It's not far."

"Let's go!" I barked, holding the extradimensional bag open for Candace who was also now fully armored up. The fox quickly climbed inside without a word. I followed, snapping the flap closed.

"Hold on to your butts!" Adelle's voice came from outside as she picked up the bag and took off.

The sensation of shadowstepping while being fully awake inside a dimensional bag was like being put in a blender set to 'cosmic horror.' Muffled sounds of Adelle's panting and the rhythmic thud of her paws hitting pavement were the only anchors to reality that was half void and half something else, possibly alive and possibly dead at the same time.

When the motion and the maddening hallucinations finally stopped, the bag was flung open. Adelle stood there, leaning against a storefront, her chest heaving. "We're here," she panted. "M'outta mana. Get out. Ness is still on the stage!"

Candace and I leapt out of the bag. I hit the pavement running, Adelle and Candace at my side. We ran towards the edge of the lingering crowd.

Nessy stood at the edge of the gazebo, her back ramrod straight. Her hands were clenched into fists at her sides, her voice echoing like booming thunder, amplified with Riffweld. The monks holding onto Nessy seemed a bit confused, clearly not sure how to proceed.

"I am not a project to be fixed!" the husky snarled at Vivianne and Sage. "I'm not a child who needs you to decide what's best for me!"

"Nessy, come on, you're not thinking clearly," Sage attempted to reason. "You've been subjected to high-level binding magic. Your emotional state is compromised. We are simply trying to help you!"

"Help me?" Nessy barked. "How the fuck is using a nullifier on me 'helping' me? The Binding Voicecast I had on to share my music with my pack is obviously disconnected now, you twat-knobs, and I'm CLEARLY still not changing my mind!"

"We were trying to free you!" Vivianne shot back. "From that damned Binder and her human pet! They've twisted you around, made you think you're one of them!"

Sister Zheniya spoke up. "Child, please. Let us not make a scene. Come inside the bookstore. We can have some calming tea and discuss this rationally without shouting in public."

"Rationally?! RATIONALLY?" The husky's voice boomed even louder, entwining with itself. "How about you GO FUCK YOURSELF! LET GO OF ME YOU! I DO NOT CONSENT!!!!"

Her scream, amplified by the mana pouring through the dragonheart laurel reached a new decibel. The windows of the LoomCo bookstore detonated. The plastic bookholders cracked, books spilling out. The wolf monks howled, letting go of the husky, clawing at their ears.

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The crowd wobbled, wincing in discomfort.

The nullifier crystal pyramid held by Sister Zheniya detonated, shattering into a hundred pieces.

The sound of Nessy's amplified scream was a physical thing, a shockwave of pure Riffweld power that sent a tremor through the flagstones of Moonshard Plaza like a small earthquake.

For a heartbeat, the world hung suspended in the ringing aftermath.

Shattered glass from the LoomCo storefront glittered on the ground. Books lay scattered, their pages fluttering in the sudden, shocked silence.

The crowd, which had moments before been a murmuring sea of onlookers, was now a frozen painting of stunned faces.

Into this frozen moment, we arrived, a rush of supporting cavalry down the cobblestone street.

Adelle, Candace, and I pushed through the stunned outer edges of the crowd like a single, determined unit. People parted before us, their eyes wide and uncomprehending. All they saw was a cheetah, a fox, and a human moving with a dangerous purpose.

Then Nessy saw me.

Her absolute fury that had shattered glass seemed to drain away, replaced by a singular, desperate focus. She didn't call my name. She didn't need to. She launched herself off the edge of the gazebo, a black-and-white blur, and ran towards us before anyone could stop her.

The husky girl crashed into my arms with a force that nearly knocked me off my feet, burying her face in my chest and clinging to me as if I were the only solid thing in a world that had just tried to tear us apart. I wrapped my arms around her, holding her tight, my own fear and anger solidifying into a cold, hard knot of protective resolve.

"I've got you," I murmured into her curly hair. "You're safe."

Adelle and Candace moved to flank us. The cheetah's knuckles cracked as she flexed her fists, her violet-blue eyes scanning the monks with undisguised hostility. Candace stood at my other side, a sly, dangerous smirk on her face, foxy, gray eyes alight with the silver gleam of her Binder magic. We were a fortress, with Nessy at our center.

Just as the crowd, monks and Nessy's friends began to recover their composure, a new sound ripped through the plaza, a high-pitched, ferocious hum that escalated into a deafening roar. Every head snapped upward as a sleek, single-person glider screamed out of the sky. It was a black, aggressive-looking machine, more weapon than vehicle, covered in sharp, triangular armored plates.

Kristi was at the controls, her expression a mask of cold fury. She was moving at well over a hundred kilometers per hour. The raptor girl pulled the glider into a tight spin directly above the LoomCo booths, the backwash from the electrogravitic engine blasting sideways into the Nessy-soundwave damaged shop, sending books flying.

A wave of superheated air torched the top of the bookstore's decorative awning, causing the fabric to blacken and smolder. The shop's barrier shield activated, not allowing the rune-covered brickwork to be melted.

With a final, thunderous roar, Kristi brought the glider to a dead stop, hovering directly above us. The crowd flinched back from the noise of her arrival. Then everyone saw what she was holding.

It was a large Tommy Gun.

An actual, vintage, drum-magazine submachine gun, gleaming with magisteel and glowing with powerful enchantments. She held it in her dark claws, pointing it directly at the group of monks, her message clear and unambiguous, her feathery mane fully upright like an emerald crown.

"Get back from my packmates!" she growled.

"Kristi?!" Katherine choked. "Have you lost your mind?! What the fuck are you doing?!"

"Abyss, dad's Nemesis glider!" Scarlet cried out "Kris! You can't be riding that through town!"

"Sheeet," Kirra choked. "That's grandfather's Decimator railgun from the fireplace mantle!"

Another sound joined the chorus—the silent, powerful hum of a high-end luxury vehicle. A sleek, black flying car, the kind that whispered of old money and untouchable power, descended into the plaza, its anti-grav systems parting the crowd like the Red Sea.

The door hissed open, and Principal Kerberos stepped out, looking as calm and authoritative as if he were stepping into his own office.

The sky, which had been a placid twilight blue, began to darken. Not with clouds, but with a presence. Another glider, this one a more utilitarian, basic, open-topped, single rider model, descended from above. Professor Fern sat at the controls, one burning eye sweeping across the scene, mane flickering with dragonfire.

As if to complete the absurd ensemble, a third, comically large glider that looked like a flying, white tugboat waddled down from the sky. Marlena Shashorth stood inside its cockpit, waving cheerfully at the crowd below.

The plaza was now a stage, and we were at its center.

"What is the meaning of this nonsense?" Zheniya demanded as she stepped forward, flanked by the two massive wolf monks.

"Nessy, what are you doing?! Get back here!" Vivianne cried out, her voice cracking with emotion. "They're manipulating you, don't you get it! That fox is a drug-addicted Binder psychopath and her human is…!"

"Kristi, you have to bring that gun and bike back before dad finds out and flips his shit!" Kirra yelled at her sister.

The scene looked like it was about to devolve into a full-blown brawl.

I knew I had to take control.

"Candace," I ordered, "My voice. Amplify it. Now."

"On it, Alpha," she purred. Her paw touched my throat, and I felt a tingle as her Binding magic took hold. "Bind Loudness! Bind Authority!"

"ENOUGH!"

My voice boomed across the plaza, imbued with a magical resonance that cut through every other sound. It wasn't just loud; it carried weight and authority to it. Every head, pradavarian and human, snapped toward me. The arguments, chatter and demands died in their throats.

I gently moved Nessy behind me, stepping forward to face the monks and her former friends. "You want to talk about helping?" I began, my amplified voice ringing with cold fury. "Let's talk about the 'help' the Krishna temple TRULY offers."

I pointed a finger at Zheniya. "You prey on the confused and the vulnerable. You promise peace, but you deliver servitude. You speak of enlightenment, but you practice erasure. You have a goddamn Astral mushroom piloting your body, and you call it faith!"

A collective gasp went through the crowd.

"What?" Zheniya choked.

"You call it a 'Well of Severance,'" I continued, my voice rising. "But it's a butcher shop for souls. You take memories, you take passion, you take love, and you feed it to your Astral fungus to grow stronger! You've been doing it to Nessy for years, trying to carve out the parts of her that make her who she is!"

My eyes shifted to Sage and Viv. "And you two idiots! You call yourselves her friends? You delivered her to them! You encouraged this! You saw a fire in her and instead of helping her tend it, you tried to smother it, helping these monsters steal her dreams."

Nessy clung to me fiercely from behind now, growling in agreement.

Something inside me snapped. Something long forgotten roared up like a dragon waking up from its thousand-year-old nap.

The branches of my infinite tree wobbled across the ocean of my soul. I saw the orange fox girl with aquamarine, tear-filled eyes holding onto my hand as her body slowly calcified into black and white tiles.

"Before the Earth was devoured by Systemfall entropy, before reality was unmade… I buried your body in the Superstore, Vivianne," I said, looking at the orange fox. "I thought that you were my friend, a Ferguson ranger worthy of being in my pack!"

Viv flinched as if struck, blinking at me in utter confusion. Sage looked pale and shaken.

"Nessy doesn't belong to you," I declared, my voice echoing off the surrounding buildings. "She doesn't belong to your temple, or your bookstore, or your twisted idea of 'help.' She belongs to my pack. And her soul, her memories, her dreams—they belong to her!"

I took another step forward, my packmates moving with me. The four of us stood as one, a wall of defiance, Kristi hovering above us, ready to fire monster-slaying bolts at the monks at my command.

"This," I said, my voice dripping with dangerous, unwavering calm, "ends now. I want my mate's songs and dreams back. Give back what you took!"

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