The following week saw me completing my preparations while only stopping momentarily to watch Holly and the Griffendors absolutely demolish Ravenclaw in a Quidditch match, then to furnish a bit more of the forest with actual buildings and to purchase weapons.

  At the girl's request, the first thing I did was I actually went to Japan to specifically purchase a run-down hot springs slash hotel combination. The onsen, as they were called, was one I had found out in the middle of the Japanese countryside and was completely run down. The Japanese catastrophic falling birthrates were already hitting the remote towns hard, and this place was already falling apart so I got it for cheap. That didn’t really stop us as we just hit it with dozens of repairing and reinforcing charms. It then didn’t take much longer to enchant the bathhouse to have real hot springs under it within our pocket dimension. It instantly became one of the favorite activities of the girls when they wanted a break.

  The second item was the purchase of a lot more guns. Wands and spells were ironically fairly short range and slow to fire. Sometimes you just needed to lay down a wall of lead. The enchantment of those guns took almost a full day. Taking inspiration from Warhammer and with the help of Hermione, I enchanted the gun’s magazines bottomless, then engraved the bullets to have piercing and anti corruption enchantments while the other half were explosive, then the gun's barrels were reinforced and magically cooled, the gun itself would produce less kick, and a subtle intent charm to help them hit what you aimed them at. Thus, a few hours later, we essentially had discount Warhammer bolters with infinite ammo.

  The next time we met Trinity they would be in for a rude surprise if they started another fight.

  Getting back to our school work. An unexpected chance also came to evaluate where exactly we stood via the midterms. Dumbledore didn’t want us to leave our classmates behind by advancing to the next years yet, but he had no problem giving us copies of what the next few years' end-of-term exams would entail.

  The golden trio had finished the fourth-year material and started the fifth. So they were nearly 2 full years ahead. Well, Hermione was probably working on her sixth-year material by now, but I suspected that she was hiding it to better fit in with us. … I was going to need to work with her on not hiding herself like that.

  My original girls and I were now starting the fourth-year coursework with a few categories like runes, enchantment, and defense against the dark arts that reached up to the golden trio’s level. That left us between 2 and 3 years ahead.

  What was perhaps the most impressive was the new girls had nearly caught up where we should have been if we hadn’t been pushing forward. So that was a year and a half completed in only four months.

  It showed how helpful the Pensieve was in letting us learn faster and review more thoroughly.

  This was, of course, all while keeping up with Anko’s insane training schedule. That side had arguably seen even larger degrees of improvement. Even I, roughly middle of the pack in martial strength and skill, was able to beat an ANBU in only about 4 months… even if she was sandbagging a little.

  That made a bit of sense though. We could cheat better on that front with Amy and my ability to help reinforce the improvements we were making there. That was compared to learning the fundamentals for an entire tree of magic. In fact I suspected when she finally got around to teaching us more actual chakra abilities, our progress would slow back down.

  Regardless of our progress, as painful as it was, we weren’t quite punching boulders into dust yet and probably wouldn’t unless we recreated Tsunade’s forehead seal and learned her insane control methods.

  I paused and considered that again…. Seriously, her seal wasn’t an insurmountable challenge and between Amy and I, we could probably find a way to reinforce whatever chakra control we can achieve.

  It might even work for magic… that would solve the lack of magic in some worlds… at least in the short term.

  I made a note to make that my next project. It should be very much doable with my inherent mastery of runes and Hermione’s genius in enchanting.

  However, regardless of my plans, all of this training meant that we were getting a little worn out.

  It was to the point that it was a good thing we were leaving, if for no other reason than to give us a bit of a change of pace so we wouldn’t burn out before the end of the year.

  Thus, the day before we left was one of both excitement and hope but also worry and stress for everyone.

  It was the day we would see if we could remove Tom’s shard from Holly.

  Pulling up the diary from its watery prison saw the book smoking slightly. Humming, I had to say, “A part of me wonders if it reacted so strongly because of the dark magic that Tom used to make it, or if it was because Tom’s soul has been so corrupted that his very soul is stained.”

  Holly turned to me. “You don’t think it is because he split his soul?”

  I shook my head. “I shaved tiny fractions of my soul off in order to make the message tubes and I am doing it to make the higher-tier soul-enchanted goblin silver….”, I grimaced, “yeah, that’s was a mouthful…”

  I saw Amy and Sabah giggle as I nearly tripped over that description while Ahri smiled indulgently.

  I considered for a moment and then just shrugged. “I am just going to call them Imbued Mithril. It seemed to fit and is a much better description of their actual function.”

  I could see Taylor and Ahri’s concern in particular as I talked about the process. They hadn’t been pleased when they learned what I had done to make my special project, but they knew they couldn’t stop me. Not when I had point blank stated that it was for them and to keep them safe.

  More, unlike a horcrux, I wasn't cracking the core of my soul. It was just the edges, and so I wouldn’t have even touched the core… if I had one. That was another thing I hoped we could accomplish on this trip, but I would have to find the right world.

  Moving past that uncomfortable pause, I continued. “Like I said, I am not sure what the purifying waters are cleaning, but there is a lot of evil and corruption here. I mean, the creation of one of these Horcruxes requires the murder of an innocent. I suspect that means a newborn or a small child and preparing his soul for another might be why it splintered when he tried to kill you as a baby, Holly. But it could also be because the magic Tom used to protect them was designed to subdue the victim that came across them, slowly draining their soul and magic to revive the dark wanker. That is some pretty evil stuff as well.”

  Shaking my head, I focused on the soggy book. The first test would be the straight approach.

  Reaching my hand out I grasped the whisp of soul I could get access to without touching the actual book itself. Now pulling slightly, I tried to yank the soul itself out of the object without doing any additional damage.

  However, almost immediately, it went wrong. The book itself started to belch black ink and shake.

  Shaking my head, I just yanked it out and watched as the soul fragment tore into pieces and started to disintegrate. Worse, there were small fragments that seemed to cling to the diary. It might not work as a horcrux anymore, but even so, that wouldn’t work for Holly. I reached out with gloves this time and handed it to Holly so she could stab it with the basilisk’s fang. It belched a tiny bit more smoke and then half dissolved into a pile of sludge.

  I shook my head. “That didn’t get everything, lets try round two with a little more elbow grease on my end.”

  Pulling out the locket, I had Holly hiss “Open” and waited for the temptations it was famous for to appear, but nothing happened.

  Looking around, I shrugged and reached forward only to finally feel a nudge against my mental barriers as if it was weakened. Yet significantly weakened was not the same as gone. Now scowling, I growled out a “piss off” followed by trying my next idea.

  This time, I used my soul to figuratively jiggle Tom’s soul in order to gather it all up. Almost as if I was attempting to gather together the remnants of jam out of a jar.

  This one went better as when I pulled, I was able to gently tease out most of the soul, but upon further inspection, there still seemed to be traces of Tom inside.

  Handing the locket to Holly, she stabbed it while I explained. “Better, but there still seemed to be small remnants of Tom left.”

  Scowling, I turned to the cup and considered what was most likely to work this time. If just pulling didn’t work, and wrapping it up before I pulled didn’t work, then I was probably going to have to actually paint on the runes to help the process along, like I did for Sasuke and Anko.

  I hadn’t wanted to do that, as the ring in particular had that withering curse on it, but it looked like didn’t have a choice. Now pondering on the cup as I considered how best to perform this exorcism.

  I didn’t have nearly enough experience with curse-breaking to remove something like Tom’s curses from the cup. To paint the runes on directly would be tricky with the dragon hide gloves I would need to wear..

  I could theoretically call on a curse breaker. Bill and Fleur came to mind, but I didn’t want to get them involved if I didn’t have to.

  Sitting and staring at the remaining horcruxes I tried to think of options.

  The first that came to mind was some sort of cleansing box. Several different universes had something like it.. It would contain runes for protection, purification, and cleansing. The array, if I made it dense enough with enchantments, should even starve the item of magic, force, warp… basically whatever flavor of mystical ability that universe had. I would then fill the box with the hot springs water and basically drown out the corruption.

  The second idea came with trying to create a dummy that would trigger the protections repeatedly until they were used up. A starving method might also be necessary, but overall it shouldn’t be overly difficult to achieve.

  The final method that came to mind was to attempt some sort of time based enchantment and attempt to reverse whatever was done to it. If wearing it out sooner was attempting to speed up time, this would be reversing it. The problem was I was extremely nervous about attempting anything with time. The warnings about using timeturners and wiping yourself out of existence jumped to mind.

  Sighing, I shook my head. None of those ideas could be finished soon enough and I would want months of testing before I tried them so I would just need to go ahead with painting the runes on.

  Unfortunately, even with my blood and magic infused ink, painting with dragon hide gloves was just as annoying as I had feared. It actually took long enough that most of my girls took a lunch break, but Holly stayed by me the entire time, eyes glued on the cup.

  It wasn’t like I was overly surprised, though; we were literally ending her parents’ murderer and finding a way to save her life.

  After some consideration, I used the runes for purification, extraction, and restoration with protection multiple times around the grouping.

  Not perfect, but for a first attempt, it wasn’t bad.

  Almost immediately, l noticed that the cup started to steam like it was heating up. Taking that as a good sign, I decided to drip hot springs water across the up as well and then wait.

  After a few minutes, I was surprised to hear a hissing, like a kettle letting out steam.

  Glancing at the equally surprised Holly, I shrugged and once again reached forward to pull the soul fragment out of the cup.

  I was worried, but after a moment of tension, I was elated that this time the soul fragment not only came out clean, but I didn’t have to pull more than the lightest tug.

  Smiling, I double checked that nothing had been left and then tried to feel the magic of the cup.

  It was definitely magical, the problem was I had no idea what it actually did. Regardless, the magic felt strong and healthy so after only a moment of hesitation, I sighed and put my gloves back on and started painting the runes on the ring and the diadem.

  As I did so, I turned to Holly and smiled. “It worked.”

  I could practically hear her relief as she breathed out, slumping with the release of tension. As the rest of the girls who were still lounging around the cabin, said sigh was then mirrored across the room.

  Gesturing towards the bathrooms, I waved her away. “Why don’t you go ahead and take one last purifying bath, just to make sure it is good and loose while I work on the ring and diadem?”

  Holly nodded and stepped away while I pulled out the ring and began to study it.

  I still had no idea how the stone worked exactly, but it certainly seemed different than anything I had studied before.

  I wasn’t sure if it was made by death or not, but the stone was different in a way I had trouble describing.

  Regardless, I painstakingly painted the runes across the surface before, with a tug and a pop I yanked Tom’s soul out of the ring. After a moment of hesitation, I popped the stone out of the ring and placed it inside my front coat pocket.

  I would let Holly and Luna use it to talk to their parents if they wanted to, but only after we could study it better later and ensure it wasn’t cursed in some way. The stories did claim it drove the holders to suicide.

  The soul fragment in the diadem met the same fate and took it and stored it away with the rest. I didn’t want anyone putting that one on until we could confirm it was clean, as I remember something about a curse of madness.

  That was when Holly returned, hair still damp from her bath and I studied the scar.

  All of the purification had well and truly left the scar smaller . It had nearly closed up and faded to the point that it was a little hard to spot if she let her hair fall across her forehead.

  Breathing in deeply I tried to smile and simply pointed her towards a chair.

  Chuckling, she roller he eyes before sitting down in front of me.

  Wincing, I gestured towards Amy who walked up and said, “Please don’t hate me. Blame Max.”

  Holly looked confused for a moment until Amy touched her and a moment later her hair literally fell out and down in a black messy rain.

  Instantly the now bald Holly looked up at Amy and then me, murder in her eyes.

  Wincing harder I simply held up my brush and then shrugged. “I am sorry, I can’t draw on hair and the runes need to surround the scar. Plus, Amy can literally grow it back in less than a minute to whatever length you would prefer.”

  Holly’s eyes narrowed and I knew she would get me back for this even if she understood the need.

  As the seconds ticked on as I slowly painted the runes I couldn’t help but wonder if something was different about this horcrux and it wouldn’t work. What if the fact it was accidental made it unable to be removed. Did I even have a back up plan other than ripping her out of her body so her soul was out of the way and then hitting her body with the killing curse… once we figured out how to cast it.

  However, before I could work myself up to calling the attempt off, we heard a hiss of discomfort from Holly.

  Not waiting, Amy reached and grabbed Holly’s hand.

  I didn’t wait either and activated my soul sight to study what was happening.

  Amy’s diagnostics came first. “She is fine, whatever is irritating her system is actually reducing in size.”

  I hesitated giving my diagnosis for only a minute trying to be certain what I was seeing in the war between the colors of her soul and Tom’s. “It looks like it is working. The fragment I can see is getting smaller and pulling away from Holly.”

  Ginny, who was practically vibrating with nerves, finally leaned forward and really studied the scar and then cried out triumphantly. “It looks like there is some sort of black ooze coming out of her scar.”

  I smiled and gathered myself for a second before I reached inside and grabbed the soul fragment. With a deep breath, I carefully, gently, but firmly I pulled the fragment of Tom right out of Holly’s head.

  As I pulled I was momentarily confused by finding the biggest piece we had seen yet. Yet that sort of made sense. He would have only put a sliver of himself into each of his other Horcruxes, this one had been accidental and probably had split what he had left in half.

  Holding it in front of me and seeing the disgusting black miasma I hesitated but after sighing again, I turned and offered it to Ahri.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  Ahri grimaced, but she had been the one to suggest she eat it. If it didn’t hurt her then we could potentially learn from Tom’s experiences, plans, and even some of his more esoteric abilities.

  She had been a little worried about his insanity, but she also had over 200 years of her self identity to draw on to fight back any influences that Tom might have left in his fragment and was certain she could handle it.

  I had objected, but she had insisted and I had ultimately caved.

  With a long slurp, we watched as what was probably nearly half of Tom’s whole soul was swallowed down.

  Ahri grimaced like she had eaten raw sewage and then shook her head a few times trying to clear it.

  I stepped over, worried as I saw her start to sweat, but seeing my face she smiled at me even if it looked pained.. “I am alright, it will just take me a day or so to process the memories. I will begin to pull the memories we might want and store Pensieve for later. Once we have copies I can get them all removed. For now, just let me sleep.”

  Swallowing nervously but there was nothing I could do so I helped her lay on the sofa and I stroked her cheek for a moment before I felt her breathing even out as she fell asleep.

  Taking a deep breath I turned in time to see Amy reach out and grow out Holly’s hair while Ginny held a mirror for her to watch.

  It was momentarily amusing to see her still swaying slightly as Ahsoka and Sabah helped her stand while Hermione used a tissue to wipe Holly’s face.

  Gaining her strength back, Holly only swayed once more while looking around, obviously a little disoriented before she took a deep breath and seemed to stretch. Then seeming to feel the relief, she looked at us and smiled. “I can tell… he is gone… I even feel stronger.” Holly breathed in deep and several things around her actually started levitating for a moment.

  At this point I noticed tears begin to gather in the corners of her eyes. “It almost feels like a weight has finally been removed and I feel… free.”

  Rushing forward the two other members of the golden trio hugged Holly, followed a moment later by the rest of us.

  Despite the setbacks and Ahri’s sacrifice, I couldn’t help but feel triumphant. We had saved Holly from having to die.

  With all of the changes we made, the chances of achieving the ending where Holly survived was almost certainly butterflied away.

  It took several minutes, but after the celebrations tapered down a little I leaned in to study Holly’s soul and smiled. “I think we did it. You still seem to have your mother’s protection.”

  That apparently got Holly to lean up and give me a kiss. “Thank you for everything, Max.” Then her grin turned mischievous. “Oh, and there are no excuses now. I will join the Family on my 17th birthday this summer. You had best be prepared.”

  I sighed and then nodded with a sardonic smile. “Who am I to argue against what one of my beautiful girls wants? You all know best, after all.”

  The chorus of giggles was music to my ears.

  Amy’s smirk was particularly sly, “... and don’t you forget it.”

  Nodding I gestured for my girls to get moving. “Why don’t you all get ready for tomorrow. I am going to stay with Ahri tonight.”

  That got a chorus of worried looks, but there weren't any disagreements.

  I then smiled again and that slowly got the girl’s smiles to return. “Once she is up and feeling better, we will find a place to celebrate.”

  The next morning Ahir was obviously feeling better even if she hadn’t woken up. Her sleep had gone from fretful with night sweats to a calm and peaceful breathing as she obviously was finally getting the rest she needed.

  Thus I was able to leave her side and watch the final preparations.

  As I did, I couldn’t help but be a little amused as I watched girls filing through our cottage door carrying the last of the supplies they wanted to bring. This included the pensive, a large amount of library books they had purchased in diagon alley, and a very excited Dobby. Apparently, he had nearly fainted when Holly had asked him to help take care of us. She had even had to do the typical fannon trope of arguing him up to taking a full Galleon for his work each month… he had started at a knut per week, which was about 5 cents USD. It was still only $50 per month, but it was a start.

  I would never say it as I was now outnumbered more than a dozen to one, but a lot of women did seem to be inclined to bring everything and the kitchen sink when they traveled, just in case.

  Yet as amusing as that thought was, another part of me couldn’t help but feel a sense of wonder rising up. We were off to see another few worlds with the women I cared about more than life itself and I …

  My internal monologue was interrupted by a knock at the door and I blinked and turned to Hinata, who was blushing, and Taylor, who had facepalmed.

  Not wasting any more time, Amy practically skipped towards the cottage door and swung it open to show two additional girls that I had expected to see only after we returned, each carrying a large back of their supplies.

  Fleur stepped through the door as Amy gestured her to come inside with a small little amused smirk to her supernaturally beautiful face. Not that my girls were not also insanely beautiful due to Amy’s ministrations.

  Tonks followed her through, looking a little more nervous than Fleur, hair an only slightly dull orange, but with lips narrowed in determination.

  Looking back and forth between Amy and the two visitors, I couldn’t help but sigh and ask. “And why did you decide to invite Fleur and Tonks, Amy?”

  Amy tried to look sheepish for a moment before she stopped and simply looked smug as she shrugged. “What? Is Dinah the only one allowed to invite people to join us at the last second?”

  This time, I really did reach up and rub my forehead.

  Noticing the slight tension, Fleur’s smile had dropped slightly. “I was told that you approved of my arrival, Monsieur Max.”

  Waiving my hand in her direction, I put on a little show with my exasperated sigh. “No and yes.” Then deciding to be a bit more clear I clarified. “We had, in fact, agreed to invite you to some of Lara’s expeditions and maybe more. However, we are going a bit further afield than just Siberia this time.”

  Tonks seemed to have put it together based on the flashes of color in her hair. However, she swallowed for a moment before her courage took charge and she squared her shoulders in determination.

  Fleur just looked confused, so no one had let that part of our powers slip yet, and I considered sending her back.

  We didn’t really know her. Hell, in the original Harry Potter story, she wasn’t even that well developed, so I couldn’t even rely on that. Plus this wasn’t the base story and she seemed a lot closer to her succubus roots here which might have changed her character.

  Up until now we had been relatively careful about who we invited to join us. Yeah we had dropped the information fairly quickly, but only on worlds we were about to leave one way or another. If she learned our secrets and then that information about us, we would actually have to deal with the consequences. That could be disastrous for our attempt to end Tom and the death munchers not to mention whatever Trinity was up to.

  Yet as I looked into Fleur’s eyes while reinforcing my occlumency, I could only spot curiosity and a more or less academic interest in her demeanor. Thus, after a moment to consider, I continued. “Are you aware there are ways of traveling to the spirit world?”

  She nodded, “Of course, even if I have never been, myself.”

  Taking a deep breath, I shrugged. “Well, I have ways of basically doing the same but traveling even further. So far that we reach other worlds entirely. The strange thing is, either because in the blind eternities of the multiverse, everything is true somewhere… or because creative people are most often just seers able to see across the veil, most fictional stories are often true somewhere out there… and, well, we are headed to a few of them.”

  Fleur actually took a tiny step back and seemed honestly shocked at the implications, but then her curiosity seemed to redouble. “I would be most thankful if you would permit me to join you to see such a thing. The discovery of the unknown and the chance to test myself is an opportunity I would not wish to miss for anything.”

  I nodded to myself as I had guessed she would say something along those lines… why else would someone become an insanely dangerous job like curse breaking if they weren’t motivated to visit places and challenge themselves.

  Turning, I opened the portal in the cottage so that it opened onto the landing space outside the gate. Gesturing towards the portal I shrugged. “If you are sure, you can come with us.”

  At their nod I smiled and shrugged. “Well, if you are sure, just let me carry Ahri and we can be on our way.” Seeing their curious faces, I considered what to explain. “She strained herself, and needs time to recover. We will tell you more once we have some down time.”

  Reaching down I picked up Ahri from the cottage sofa and carried her through the portal followed by the rest of the girls.

  As they stepped through I could tell that the two visitors were a little overwhelmed walking through a portal only to find massive stone walls surrounding a forest with nothing but a grey mist behind them. That was even before the effect of the expansion charms and defenses which made the walls and gatehouse look even more imposing, even if we hadn’t gotten around to making the gate itself yet.

  Walking inside along the non-expanded path, we quickly approached the decoy manor house. Yet I stopped and gestured as best I could, with a fox girl in my arms, towards my new Japanese inn and onsen combination.

  “You are welcome to stay in the inn. Dobby, Holly’s house elf friend, would be happy to help you with anything you need. But I will also let you stay in our hidden manor house, this is just a decoy, but it is hidden with a Fidelus charm, and I don’t think we have known each other long enough to give you that secret yet, so one of my girls will have to pull you into the travel method each time you enter.”

  Fleur and Tonks looked at each other for a moment before they shrugged. “We don’t mind staying here for now.”

  Nodding, I gestured for them to follow me into the decoy manor, which had a copy of our situation room that existed for just this type of situation. It even had a variety of sofas and couches for everyone to relax on as we traveled.

  Putting Ahri down on one of them, I pointed towards the stairs. “Why don’t you put down your things?”

  That was, of course, when Dobby appeared. “Dobby would be happys to be doing that for the new changey missy and the flower lady.” Then with a snap, their bags were gone and we all blinked.

  I snorted and most of the girls giggled before we settled back down.

  At that point Thea few in using her little Eve drone. “It is nice to meet you both. My name is Thea. I am sorry we couldn’t meet until now. I am an artificial intelligence, so I can’t really blend in very well in the magical world.”

  That got a lot of confused looks and I waited while Taylor and Amy explained the concept to a surprised Tonks and a very confused Fleur. Yet it seemed to prove we weren’t lying to Tonks, whose hair had turned a more determined pink again, and a bemused Fleur who had accepted that Thea was an advanced Muggle Golem fairly easily.

  Taking a deep breath and looking around, I had to ask. “Alright, are we ready to go?”

  Everyone followed my lead and sat down, the new travelers looking nervous. “Just hold on, it isn’t pleasant but the feeling won’t last very long.”

  Holly, Chell, Ginny, Lara, and especially Tonks and Fleur were gripping their armrests, obviously extremely nervous. However, next to each of them my older wives rolled their eyes. Taylor even just muttered a “Just go already.”

  Amy, on the other hand, snorted and then said. “That’s what she said…”

  That finally broke the tension and I turned my unimpressed glare at her. “Really?”

  Her smug look wasn’t fooling anyone. “What?” Then when I didn’t even blink she continued. “Seriously, you have been way too grim ever since Luna left for her little trip.” Then she smirked. “I can’t wait to see what they do for you with my little help when they return.”

  Holly finally cracked a grin, which slowly spread to the rest of the first-time travelers and I realized that Amy had probably been helping them relax.

  Huffing, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes fondly at her. “Fine, whatever… just hold on.”

  Closing my eyes, I focused on a slight magical world that I had noticed before that felt just a little more advanced than we were here.

  With a reach and a pull, I yanked us out of this world and across the void into the next.

  It was a short jump. Perhaps only 20 seconds or so, but I could still see Tonks and Fleur, struggling as their souls were feeling the crushing emptiness around us, along with many things left in the dark that were better left alone.

  A few moments later, I felt a metaphorical thud as we landed in the new reality.

  Looking across at the girls I was pleased to see real concern across the veteran jumpers as they tried to comfort the newbies.

  Lara looked punch drunk while Holly was rolling her shoulders like she was missing something. Ginny was looking around in wonder and Chell looked dazed. It was her first time being conscious during a jump after all. Yet it was Fleur and Tonks in particular who looked properly frazzled.

  I still did a quick check over each of their souls to ensure that nothing had gone wrong, but they looked fine.

  Nodding, I opened a portal in the decoy manor’s control room and poked through a tester that Thea had been nice enough to make for me.

  It was a simple probe to ensure that the world we had found didn’t have any immediate dangers like radiation or poison. I couldn’t pull it back inside while inside the protective walls, but I could pick it up once we stepped outside and even if I couldn’t, they were made to be semi-disposable.

  When the sensors came back negative for any immediate dangers, I shrugged and opened the portal wider to look around… and saw nothing interesting of note.

  Honestly, I was a little amused at the anticlimax. It was just a medium-sized town. The type you could find anywhere in the Northeast or Northwest United States or Canada. Actually, it was probably the Northwest based on the number of evergreens and the slight humidity.

  Shrugging, I moved the portal to an alley between some houses and a small convenience store and widened it so we could all step out.

  Feeling the magic in the air and noticing it was a bit thinner than we were used to, but not terribly so, I cast a very mild notice-me-not and walked around the corner to take a look at the convenience store. Next to the store I noticed that behind us was a high school and I shivered at the mere thought of having to go through that again.

  I paused and wondered what part of me had such horrid memories of high school, but quickly shook it off. I could try to pick those memories out later.

  Ducking inside the store, Taylor and I checked to see if they still sold magazines, while the rest of my girls split between collecting whatever type of slushy caught their fancy and the candy isle.

  I knew most convenience stores still sold magazines even through the modern day and I wanted to find out any clues on what made this world different , however instead I found an actual daily newspaper.

  That was a bit surprising as a lot of places had dropped them as everything moved online.

  So it was just as I suspected when said newspaper gave me a date of January 25th, 2005.

  Unfortunately, that date didn’t mean anything to me, so I scanned the page for any big news stories. Yet to my disappointment, I didn’t find anything concrete. The war in Afghanistan had happened, no mention of any big names I could recognize like Tony Stark or any mention of other superheroes. We were too far from Chicago to know if this was the Dresden Files. I didn’t feel any massive obscuring magic, so I doubted it was something like Percy Jackson… thank big G god for that. It could have been Buffy the Vampire slayer, but we were in the wrong location to know. …At least we could rule out any of the zombie or apocalypse-type stories.

  Sighing, I put the paper down while Taylor did the same with hers, only to shake her head at me, signaling that she didn’t find anything either. Thus we had nothing to do but wait for the rest of my girls to finish paying for the snacks they had found.

  Taking the root beer Chell offered me and unscrewing it to take a swig, we exited the store while I wondered what we should do next, only to hear a screeching tire and horn to our right.

  Tensing, I scanned the area only to spot a sorta cute girl in a girl-next-door kind of way flinching back. She had a perfectly average height, was wearing very normal jeans, a T-shirt, sneakers, and a backpack. Honestly, she was so average that it was almost painful. But I didn’t have time to consider that as she was still backpedaling, terrified as a van came flying towards her.

  Palming my wand, we started running at just-beyond-human level to get a better shot at shooting a cushioning spell to protect her when my sharpened skills spotted a blur moving nearly as fast as we could at our top speed.

  This blur materialized into a boy who looked around 20 who jumped in front of the van. However, instead of getting squashed as well, the van crumpled around his outstretched hand like it was made of tissue instead of steel.

  Inside the van I noticed the driver had been knocked unconscious by the crash, but seemed to be breathing, which made things easier on that front. A quick check via a discrete portal by Amy would ensure he didn’t die.

  Yet even as I did that, I blinked as this entire setup seemed familiar. That was when the sun finally broke through the clouds for a second and I saw him light up like he had diamonds all across his skin.

  Instantly, I stopped, followed by most of my girls.

  Next to me I noticed the vast majority of them looked confused while Taylor and Amy looked conflicted and Sabah looked exasperated.

  Now only 20 meters away or so and shaking my head, I turned around and declared. “NOPE!”

  The three who now knew where we were followed me as I headed back towards the alley. The rest seemed confused, but shrugged and turned to follow as well.

  Yet my exclamation seemed to have gotten the attention of Edward and Bella. It also seemed to be before Edward could attempt to gaslight her into believing it didn’t happen, because I heard a confused and overwhelmed voice call out. “What? What is going on? You saved me, but… What?”

  Not answering her, I continued my rant under my breath. “Nope… Nope… Nope! I am not dealing with a world where vampires can have babies despite their every bodily fluid being venom and where werewolves imprint on newborns and think it is ok to raise their future love interests.”

  Bella had no way of hearing me, but apparently Edward could.

  Honestly Edward probably wouldn’t have been more shocked if I had slapped him with a fish…

  That baffled freezing up didn’t last long, however, as he suddenly sped around to in front of us at his top speed. “Who are you? How do you know…”

  He was cut off as I simply cast a body bind jinx at him, causing his arms and legs to snap together, but he was too coordinated to fall on his face like Longbottom did in the movie and I wasn’t petty enough to force him to fall over just on the off chance it would break his nose… to my internal disappointment.

  Walking around him, still leaving a very confused Bella Swan behind, I continued. “Seriously, I have no desire to be anywhere near this reality. Let's go.”

  Behind me I heard Bella call out even more confused. “What is going on… please?”

  I thought about not answering, after all, she turned out fine in the books and movies.

  However, I couldn’t help but feel bad at the utter confusion and panic in her voice.

  Sighing, I turned around and ran a hand down my face. “Seriously girl, it really isn’t that complicated or even that big a deal. He is a vampire, yes the blood sucking, eternal undead kind, even if he isn’t actually hurt by sunlight. He is somewhat obsessed with you because your blood just smells particularly good.”

  I watched as her mouth opened and closed several times before she looked up at me. And I shrugged. “Trust me, we have seen way weirder things than this.”

  I considered stopping there, but then sighed and continued. “We had contact with a seer, she saw a future were you two will end up together after a lot of drama.”

  Gesturing towards the vampire, knowing he was still perfectly capable of hearing me, I shook my head. “Seriously, I don’t care if you date a man 90 years older than you or if you want to become a vampire like him… but for the love of everything good and holy… don’t let literally everyone around you push you around and gaslight you. Also… maybe wait until you are 21 or even better 24 before making the switch. There really isn’t any benefit to being a teenager forever.”

  Behind me I could actually hear Edward straining against his own muscles to try to free himself.

  Turning to him, I rolled my eyes. “As for your… you are an old man. Stop the pity party, the world isn’t ending and your curse isn’t that bad. Even if you had to feed on humans, you don’t actually have to kill them and it isn’t like you are in pain or can’t see the sun or something.”

  Shaking my head I let my voice get more grim. “Seriously though, stop hanging out in high schools, it's creepy! You could easily pass for a young looking 20 year old so there is no reason to hang around teenagers. If you still feel like a monster, maybe try to do something good with your powers. Something like rescuing hostages, or ending drug cartels, or just being a decent and honest cop. Now, good luck and goodbye…”

  Not waiting for a response, I led our group around the corner of the store before I opened a portal behind the alley, and a moment later, we were back at the gate.

  Taking a deep breath, I rubbed my head. Then, noticing I was still carrying my soda, I took a sip of my root beer as we walked back towards the onsen.

  Not really wanting to talk about the Twilight books as we walked, I reached out with my soul and started to look for another world that had minor magic but was still modern. We still had a side quest to find the Tomb Raider games for Lara, which came out in the 2010s.

  Focusing inward, I verified that I was ok before I judged how far I could jump us. I was more or less healed from Alexandria, so I could make another one immediately, but it was best if it was not as far. That limitation still left a lot of options, though.

  Thus, by the time we reached our temporary control center again, I had found another location close enough that I could jump to.

  Behind me I could hear Taylor and Amy giving a short description of this world while Sabah started poking holes in the plot. It was clear that the younger two had probably grown up with the books and had more rose tinted glasses.

  Calling out the countdown was a lot less impactful for the second time in less than an hour as we braced for the jump.

  Pulling ourselves out into the void, we traveled for barely 5 seconds later we were once again landing. Shaking off the bit of exhaustion, I dropped another probe. Once the probe came back with the all clear, I glanced around outside the portal.

  This time, I immediately judged that we were further south based on how warm it was.

  I spotted the normal houses and stores I would have expected. So we were probably in the United States again.

  Shrugging, I found a small strip mall with an alley behind it to let us all out.

  Walking out and across to the mall’s main area, I tried to once again get any clues as to where we were.

  It was getting darker, but I could still see the cars in the parking lot, and it looked like we were in California this time, based on the number of California license plates.

  Bemused, I was about to look around when I spotted a police car speeding by with the name Fairport.

  I paused and turned to my girls. “Does anyone know a city named Fairport?”

  Amy looked frustrated as she tried to remember, but after a moment, she shook her head. “It is familiar, but not off the top of my head.”

  I sighed. “Well,let's…”

  We were interrupted by what was practically a fleet of SWAT vans racing past us followed by two military helicopters.

  I blinked at the three letter logo stenciled onto the side of those helicopters, then paled.

  Amy and Sabah winced, spotting the same thing…

  I sighed, “Ah… so that is where it was from.”

  Rubbing my forehead, I grimaced. “We should probably try to save her… or if that isn’t possible, at least help her get her revenge and then put her out of her misery.”

  Then I paused and sighed. I wasn’t going to be able to make the reveal of my secret project as big as I would have wanted, but keeping my girls safe was more important as this could get fairly dangerous if we got caught unaware.

  Interlude Dinah:

  Dinah was proud of herself.

  They had done well in Johto, but it was time to start pushing on to Hoenn.

  Her Espeon, Mrs Figgles, circled around her legs and looked up at her.

  Dinah couldn’t help but smirk as she eyed her partner.

  Verifying her mood, Mrs Figgles jumped onto her shoulders, and then the two looked across the city.

  Behind them Sarah once again kicked Brock in the shin before demanding he carry her things.

  Honestly, Dinah wasn’t sure why they kept this up.

  Sarah, the former Bakuda, was thrilled to death to have a Simp, since that is what Luna insisted they call Brock, worshipping the ground she walked on.

  Sarah wasn’t about to dump him despite all of his flirting. Honestly, Dinah didn’t even really think Sarah cared if Brock went chasing every skirt they came across as long as he came back to worship her afterwards. She was too independent for anything else.

  It didn’t hurt that after Amy’s upgrades, she was just as sexy as anyone they came across.

  Honestly, Dinah couldn’t really complain about anything else there either as she was also pretty happy with her own upgrades.

  Bloody hell, she was going to make sure Max’s eye popped when he finally came back for them.

  Well, specifically, both her and Luna, since Luna’s plan was a devious one after all.

  Her giggle was a lot more mature after all this time, while her companion just rolled her eyes and smacked her across the forehead with her two tails.

  Interlude Sirius:

  Getting some more fluids in him after another evening of exercise saw him realize they were out of firewhisky.

  For a moment, Sirius considered calling Kreacher, but he didn’t have to do that just yet since Dobby was still here for another day before he left with Max and Holly, so better not.

  “Dobby?”

  A pop saw the arrival of Holly’s crazy House elf.

  “What can Dobby be doing for the doggy father?”

  A small snort came out of his mouth before he could even notice.

  That made him smile as he relaxed in his boxers on the sofa.

  “Before you leave tomorrow, could you go ahead and grab me another case of firewhisky? Just take the money out of the Black vaults.”

  Turning, he spoke to his two ladies. “Do you two want anything, my sweets?”

  Sherrel snorted. “Nah, hun, I can’t drink for a while now.”

  Anko raised her eyebrow and looked over at the other woman. “You too?”

  Sherrel just shrugged. “I wanted a family. I just didn’t realize that after Amy fixed me, all my pipes would start working again so quickly. She said it could take some time after all.”

  Anko nodded. “Yeah, I was practically told to bring back whatever bloodline I could get.”

  Face going pale, Sirius stood up. “Wait, Wait, Wait! You two are pregnant?”

  Anko looked at him like he was stupid. “Yeah, what did you think would happen after everything we did?”

  Sherrel snorted and continued to munch on some pretzels.

  There was a moment of silence before Sirius’ eyes rolled back into his skull and he fainted onto the sofa.

  In the resulting silence, Dobby turned to the two ladies. “Cans Dobby be getting the Snaky Lady and the Wrenchy Wench anything?”

  Waving her hand, Anko dismissed the idea. “Nah, I have just been craving fresh air and berries and there are more than enough of both outside."

  Sherrel smiled at the little guy. “I wouldn’t mind another few bags of chips and pretzels, this one seems to like salty things.”

  Nodding, Dobby agreed. “Right aways.”

  Turning to Anko, Sherrel tilted her head. “Do you think we should spend some time with Rin now since all three of us are pregnant now?”

  Anko shrugged. “I don’t see why now, I think they were planning on stopping by during the school break anyway.”