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Sizzle It Up With Taako was an amazing show, people from all over came to see the shows and taste the amazing food. Of course it couldn’t stay perfect forever, nothing could. One fateful day Taako fed forty people their deaths unknowingly. He ran off with his assistant who ditched him as soon as he could. After that Taako went into hiding and started learning a different type of magic. Taako became a necromancer, wanting to fix the wrongdoings on his past.

One year after the horror show at Glamour Springs Taako returns in the dead of night, right to the same spot where his wagon sat. Quietly he draws up what he needs and starts his spell. He wasn’t very advanced in necromancy, but he was willing to do this spell more than once if it meant bringing them all back. What he doesn’t expect is the man that comes walking down the road towards him.

“Stop what you’re doing, I order you on behalf of the Raven Queen.”

“Buzz off, I’m working here.”

“What you’re doing is trying to bring back the dead.”

“Yep, I’m bringing back forty people. Forty people who died here a year ago because of me. So tell your queen to shove it.”

“I can’t let you do this.”

“Who said you’re letting me? I’m stronger than I look my man.”

“Fine, if you want to do it that way.”

Kravitz rushes forward with his scythe and swings it, but catches nothing but air. Behind him Taako has reappeared.

“Look, I’m trying to not waste spell slots here.”

“How did you-?”

“I wasn’t always a necromancer hot stuff. Now quit so I can do this and leave.”

“I can’t do that.”.

Kravitz moves to swing at Taako again, but he just moves away from the swing, starting to bring back some of the people who died that night. Unfortunately his guard drops, and he feels the scythe cut into him. Without a word he drops to his knees.

“I just wanted to make it right.”

Kravitz takes Taako’s soul, cutting a portal into the astral plane and stepping through. Instead of immediately judging the soul, he goes to the Raven Queen. He had another idea for this one.

“My Queen, I have a… A request.”

‘Does it have to do with that soul in your hand?’

“Yes it does. This soul belonged to a necromancer who wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, he simply wanted to bring back people he accidentally killed.”

‘Ah, I heard about this. Give me that soul.’

Kravitz hands over the soul, hoping that the Raven Queen doesn’t pass judgement on him right then and there.

‘Did he tell you that those were his intentions? To bring back the people he killed?’

“Yes he did.”

‘Did you know what he was talking about?’

“No, I don’t recall it.”

‘One year ago this soul came to Glamour Springs as a cooking show and fed forty people their deaths. Do you remember that night?’

“Yes… Are you saying that was him?”

‘He is the one who fed those people their deaths, but he did nothing to the food. I learned that from Istus. His assistant was the one who killed those people. He put arsenic in the food, hoping to kill this poor soul.’

“So he did nothing wrong that night.”

‘Correct.’

Gently the Raven Queen hands the soul back to Kravitz and he takes it with the same caution.

‘What was your request?’

“I… I wanted to ask if you would make him a reaper like myself.”

‘A reaper? Well I don’t see why not. Go get him set up and bring him here. We’re going to be busy here very soon.’

Kravitz nods and leaves with the soul in hand, going to what was basically his office. Here he would make a new and better body for the new reaper, one that didn’t age and had far more power. Once that’s started he lets the soul float around the room as he starts on the paperwork for what had been done that night. It was going to be a hassle, but he felt it was worth it.

After finishing everything up he watches the soul lazily float around the office, gently bumping into things now and again. After a while it settles on his desk and stays put, almost content.

“Now that’s a first. Most souls zip around the place, trying to find some kind of exit. Did She tell you something maybe? That could be why you’re so calm. Or maybe you’re just odd. You certainly did seem odd to me back there. You were unfazed by me completely.”

Kravitz picks up the soul and holds it gently.

“I’ll have to find you some clothes. I’ll probably go back and get that hat you were wearing, you seemed to have really loved it. I’ll even fix it up for you if you like. Or you could do that once you have your body. You might have to borrow some of my clothes until you can figure out your own style and how to show that.”

He puts the soul back down on the desk and gets up. He summons his scythe and heads to the door.

“I have some things to do, I’ll be back to check on you soon.”

Soon ended up being once the body was done and the soul was inside. He was sitting on Kravitz’s desk, wearing a suit that was too big for him and just kicking his legs.

“That… That was fast.”

“Nah, you were just slow. I thought you of all people would know time is funky here.”

“Do you know where here is?”

“Yeah, big mama filled me in. Now, hush. I’m trying to figure out this clothes thing.”

“Maybe this will help.”

Kravitz puts a big wizard hat on the elf’s head, fixing it so it sat right.

“Maybe it will.”

The elf stands up and concentrates for a moment, before changing the clothes he was wearing into something that fit the theme, but suited him much better than the suit.

“Looks like it helped after all… What’s your name?”

“Are you tellin me you brought me here and saved my hide, but you didn’t even figure out my name?”

“I’ve been a bit busy.”

The elf walks over, getting up in Kravitz’s space.

“I’m Taako, y’know, from TV. Now, I promised bird mama I’d get back to her once I figured out how the clothes thing worked. So if you’ll excuse me I’ll be heading out.”

With that, Taako cast Blink and came back a second later behind Kravitz, just outside of his office. Then he went off to talk to the Raven Queen. With a sigh Kravitz shuts the door to his office and sits at his desk, starting on the paperwork to his last job. This was bound to be interesting. He just hoped the Raven Queen thought so too, or Taako would lose his job as fast as he’d gotten it and join the rest of the dead souls.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kravitz steps out of his office a few hours later and hears an unfamiliar sound, laughter. He follows it and finds Taako and the Raven Queen talking idly and laughing about things. Quietly he watches the two. Taako seemed to win over anyone, even the goddess of Death. He wondered if it was a skill or if it just came naturally to Taako. Some small part of him wanted to believe that it was natural. He was an elf, how could it not?

‘Kravitz, feel free to join us any time you like.’

Taako looks over and grins.

“Well look who finally came out of that stuffy office. You spend way too much time in there bone man. Come relax for a bit.”

“I had paperwork to do. Something you’ll have to get used to doing once you really start this job.”

“You make it sound like it’s hard. I bet you just like complaining is what it is.”

“I do not like to complain.”

He hears more than sees the Raven Queen stifle a laugh.

“Sounds like someone is a liar. The boss lady just threw you under the fantasy bus.”

“My Queen please, don’t side with him.”

‘I’m sorry Kravitz, but it is kind of true.’

“This is the thanks I get for helping you. I see how it is.”

“There he goes again. You’ve gotta lighten up, see how much of a complainer you really are.”

Kravitz shakes his head and leaves, going back to his office. By the time he gets there with the ever shifting way the Astral Plane is, Taako is already there.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t sit on my desk.”

“You let me sit here before.”

“You were just a soul then.”

“I’m still just a soul, just got some extra shit slapped on.”

“You are insufferable, you know that?”

“Oh yeah, but that’s what makes me fun.”

Kravitz rolls his eyes and sits at his desk. When he looks up he sees Taako, but without any of his skin. It had been a while since he’d seen something like that, so he literally jumps out of his own skin, going skeleton. This causes Taako to laugh as his skin starts stitching itself back on.

“Gods I got you good! I wasn’t expecting that reaction at all!”

“It’s been a while since someone else around me has been able to do that! I forgot!”

If Kravitz could blush, he would be. Stitching his skin back on thankfully doesn’t help that situation.

“How do you forget? You literally did that to me when I first saw you!”

“How many other reapers have you seen around here Taako? It’s just us. It’s been just me for a long time.”

There’s an awkward silence between them.

“Wow, way to kill the mood Skeletor.”

“Well it’s the truth. So I’d appreciate it if you would keep that in mind from now on. Also, I have a name.”

“Yeah yeah, now I’ve got a couple questions for you. First off, do I get a scythe handed to me or do I have to make that too?”

“You have to summon that, just like your clothes.”

“Gotcha, so I’ll have to practice that later. Next question, do we go on jobs together or do we do jobs separetely? If I’m honest I’d like to see what all you can do.”

“What all I can do?”

“I didn’t have much time to see how you fight my dude. Now I’d just love an answer.”

“Well I suppose you’d have to ask the Raven Queen about that.”

“Cryptic as usual I see. Alright next, will I run into myself here?”

“What? Taako that makes no sense.”

“Well time is weird here, right? So it would make some sense that eventually I would run into myself at one point or another. Or is it all linear and shit?”

“I… I honestly have no idea.”

“You’re telling me you’ve never seen yourself? Like at all? Not even like something that very well could have been you turning a corner?”

Kravitz sits back in his chair, thinking it over. He hadn’t expected the questions to end up like this. Now he was questioning the things he’d seen in this plane.

“Perhaps? I think the Raven Queen would be the one to ask. I might even ask her myself.”

“Well now we’re getting somewhere. Last question for now, unless I think of more. Do I keep my old powers?”

“What do you mean?”

“Am I still techinically a wizard even though I’m dead?”

“Oh, yes of course. You can even level up those skills.”

“Perfect, because ch’boy is not giving up transmutation magic.”

“I should hope you give up the necromancy though.”

“Well, would I have to? I mean if it helped here shouldn’t I still be able to learn about it and use those skills?”

“No, you can’t.”

“Says you. I think I’ll go ask.”

With that Taako gets up and leaves the room. Kravitz sighs and rubs his face, then gets back to his paperwork. He had to see what bounties were coming up that needed to be dealt with before it got any worse. As he flips through his book he finds Taako’s name, scratched out and with the word ‘Forgiven’ written to it. Quickly he gets up and leaves his office. If Taako had this many deaths should he really be a reaper? Obviously his stunt in Glamour Springs wasn’t his first run in with necromancy. Oh he was in so much trouble.

When he gets there Taako had his own version of the book and he was just staring at it.

“Taako, why did you lie?”

‘Kravitz, stand down.’

“He lied about his dabbling in necromancy!”

Kravitz loses his skin and summons his scythe, pointing it at Taako. Taako quickly loses his skin and summons his own weapon.

Kravitz stops and looks at Taako.

“What?”

“Is… Is that an umbrella?”

“Yeah, what of it? I’ll still kick your ass with it!”

‘Taako, Kravitz, both of you put your weapons away. I will explain this once you’re both calm.’

Taako simply drops the umbrella and it disappears. Kravitz lets his scythe go as it disappears.

“Now, why does Taako have a bunch of deaths recorded in the book?”

‘Taako is not from this planar system. He originates from another far away from here. I have limited information on this and according to Istus I will only obtain more when the time is right. So I will trust her in this. Kravitz you will do the same.’

Kravitz watches Taako take a few steps away, then hurries over as the elf starts to fall.

“Taako, what’s wrong?”

“I…”

‘Give him a moment Kravitz, I believe some things are coming back to him.’

Kravitz holds Taako steady as he quickly loses and regrows his skin several times. Once it’s over Taako stands up and then promptly tears a hole into another plane in front of him, leaving through it quickly and shutting it before Kravitz can react.

“Should I go after him?”

‘No, just be patient. He will come back when he’s ready. Istus is watching over him so if anything happens we will know before then. If only by a moment.’

“What would he do? I don’t understand what happened.”

‘I don’t either, but dear Istus seems to trust him. I trust in her, so we should be patient.’

“Of course my Queen. I… I suppose I should go back to my office then.”

‘Isn’t there something you wanted to ask me?’

“Huh? Oh, of course. I forgot in all this craziness.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kravitz finds Taako a few hours later when he goes to report to the Raven Queen. Taako was pacing and talking about… Well he wasn’t even really talking, he was speaking some kind of static sound. After a few moments of it his head started to hurt.

“Taako if you don’t mind, whatever you’re doing is giving me a headache.”

“What do you mean? I’m talking about-” Static takes over again.

“I only heard static, so please cut it out.”

“You don’t… Oh fuck I didn’t even think about that. I’ll be right back.” With that Taako cuts a rift into the air and leaves again.

“My Queen were you catching any of what he was saying?”

‘No, but we should have some kind of explanation soon.’

“I hope so, because that was very strange.”

The two talk about the recent reports and things going on until Taako comes back with a flask in hand.

“Ok, you both should drink this. Don’t ask me what it is or where I got it but it should clear some things up.”

“Why do I feel like this is some kind of trap?”

“Why would I try and do something to the literal god that is keeping me somewhat alive?”

“Good point.” Kravitz takes the flask and takes a sip from it, then hands it to the Raven Queen. “Alright, now what?”

“Now I start talking again. Tell me if it goes static. My name is Taako, I’m from another plane, this isn’t the first one I’ve been on. I have a twin sister named Lup. She’s in the book along with Davenport, Lucretia, Barry Bluejeans, Magnus Burnsides, and Merle Highchurch.”

“No static yet.”

“Alright, now let’s see how far this goes.”

“We all worked together on-” Static again.

“Taako you cut out.”

“Shit, really? That shouldn’t happen though… Unless there’s another one. Oh… Duh, of course there is! How else?”

‘Taako, another what?’

“Another one of the things that makes me sound like static to the two of you. Now I just have to find it. I have a lot of looking to be doing actually.”

‘Well for now I think you should rest. Obviously this information is taking a lot out of you.’

“Yeah, I guess I’ll do that.”

Taako walks away from the two, mumbling to himself with only static coming out. He had to figure out what to do with the information he had. First thing should be finding Lup, but he didn’t have any leads on her six years ago, no way would he have any better luck now. Maybe he could find Barry instead. Shouldn’t be hard, he just had to keep an eye out for a dorky guy in blue jeans that had a tendency to die way too much. With that in mind Taako heads back to the plane of the living and starts his search. First he casts disguise self and then heads to the nearest town. Phandalin seemed to be the closest thing around, so he heads that way. Finding one nerd shouldn’t be too hard.

A few hours later Taako was hating that thought. This one nerd was too hard to find. Of course he would just disappear as Lup had. How did his family manage to do this to him? He needed a better plan, one that would bring Barry to him. He just had to figure out what would work. If Barry was in a body he would remember nothing, but if he was a lich he would remember everything.

After some thinking he decides to recreate the last note they’d gotten from Lup. So he writes up a note that simply said ‘Back.’ and was signed with a kiss. Then he pinned it up on Craig’s List and decided to wait. If Barry was around he would understand no matter what and investigate.

It takes a few days, but Taako finally sees a response on the list. It was a map pinned to the note, so Taako takes both and follows the trail that had been pointed out on the map. Once he gets there he slowly makes his way in.

“Barry? It’s… It’s Taako. Sorry to trick you like this but I needed to get in contact with you.” What he finds is Barry as a lich, floating next to a green pod that was propped up in the corner.

“Taako… Oh, of course. I should have known.”

“Barold, I did that so you would think it was Lup. If you knew that would have been amazing.”

“Still… Wait, you said her name. Taako do you remember?”

“I remember everything, but not because Lucretia changed things. I uh… I work for the Raven Queen now.”

“You’re a reaper?! Taako what the fuck!”

“I’m not gonna reap you or give you up Barold! Have some fucking faith in your brother. I wanted to know what you’ve figured out in the past six years and if I can help you at all. I learned some new things too.”

“Alright, you’re right. Besides, Lup would kick your ass and mine if that happened.” Barry floats over to his desk and waves Taako over, showing him what he’d learned so far about what Lucretia was up to.

“This isn’t much Barry.”

“She hasn’t been up to much. I know she wants to gather the relics, but she hasn’t had much luck. Anyone she sends after them ends up using them. Now she’s just… Off the radar like I am.”

“Well I can fix those holes you have. She’s got a floating base. It’s not complete, but she’s got it. Here’s the next big thing, even bigger than that. Fisher had a baby.”

“A baby? What makes you so sure?”

“When’s the last time you heard anything major about the relics? I bet it’s all just rumor, right?”

“Yeah, that’s all I’ve been getting.”

“She fed another copy of her journals to the baby, and fed information about the relics into Fisher. Anyone drinks the goop Fisher secretes, they get knowledge of the relics but they don’t get back our story. The baby keeps that hidden.”

Barry stares at Taako for a while, then looks at his desk.

“What?”

“I forget how smart you are sometimes.”

“Wow, harsh Barry. I didn’t just get on the mission because I was a good cook.”

“I know. Sorry.”

“Oh whatever, it doesn’t matter right now.”

“Ok, so what matters?”

“Finding Lup and making sure you two don’t get reaped. I bet I could ask the boss lady to give you jobs since you are family.”

“I don’t think that’s how that works.”

“Well then she’ll have three necromancers with over a century's worth of knowledge up against her.”

“Three? Taako… What did you do?”

“Don’t worry about it. For now we have to find my sister.”

“Taako we were running low on leads six years ago, the trail is cold by now.”

“For you maybe, but I can do something you can’t. I found a nifty little trick in my book.” Taako pulls out his book of bounties and finds Lup’s name, pointing at it. Then he goes outside and comes back with a long stick. “Do you have a knife in here?”

“Yeah, top drawer on the left.”

Taako grabs the knife and cuts Lup’s name into the stick.

“Alright, stay here and try to keep yourself out of trouble. I’ll put up a couple protection spells on the outside of the cave so no one can bother you.”

“Do you really think that’ll work?”

“If not then we’re back to square one.”

“Then good luck.”

“See you later nerd.” With that Taako leaves the cave, putting up a couple protection spells and then letting the stick guide him. It looked dumb but he could definitely feel some find of pull on it. Like Lup had a hold of it and was pulling him along.

As he walks he hums an old song they had made together, one they used to sing when they were on the road. It seemed fitting for what he was doing now. Wandering the road and looking for his heart. Lup was his heart and he felt empty and cold without her.

Thankfully he doesn’t have time to get too far on that train of thought when he ends up in a cave. So he pulls out his umbrella/scythe and starts searching for any signs of his sister.

“Lup, Lulu, come on you dork. I know you’re here.”

What he finds stops him dead in his tracks. Slumped up against the wall was a skeleton in a red robe, with an umbrella in their hands. That could only be one person. Carefully he takes the umbrella and robe, then heads back to Barry’s cave. He had to hope Barry had a way of bringing Lup back. Otherwise he was about to raise some hell.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Taako makes his way back to Barry’s cave and sets the stuff down on the desk.

“Taako? What-”

“This is all that was left. She was in Wave Echo Cave.”

“All that was left? Taako… She… She can’t be dead.”

“Well she is. Either that or she’s out there wandering around as a lich. I know she hasn’t been caught or her name would be crossed out. So she’s dead. That’s all there is to it.”

“Well I don’t believe that. If you do then obviously you don’t know Lup.” Barry’s stops and looks at Taako. “I didn’t-”

“I don’t know Lup?! I had a hell of a lot more time with her than you did Barry! You knew her for a century! I knew her our whole lives! So don’t you dare give me that crap!”

“Then don’t give me the crap of you thinking she’s dead! I can see it on your face that you don’t believe it!”

“Then what, am I just supposed to believe that she’s kept away from both of us for six years?! I don’t think so! Lup would at least have found you by now!”

“What if she got another body? She wouldn’t remember anything and wouldn’t know to come find us.”

“Oh please, she’s as reckless as you are. She’d have a body count here just like you do.”

“Good point… So, what do we do? What’s the plan Taako?”

“I don’t know.” Taako sits on the floor and puts his face in his hands. “Lup was better at making plans than I was.”

“Well what can we do?”

“We could… We could try and make you a reaper. Then you wouldn’t have to hide in this cave.”

“I’m not sure about that.”

“If anyone tries anything I’ll get you out of there.”

“Taako you’re good, but we’re talking about a literal god. One you are connected to.”

“Your point?”

“We’re both gonna die.”

“Like that’s new for us.”

“Good point.”

Taako gets up and brushes himself off, then cuts a hole into the astral plane.

“You ready?”

“No.”

“Too bad.”

Taako pulls Barry through and keeps him close. He didn’t need to be losing anymore family. He’d rather go to the stockade than keep living without Lup and Barry.

‘Taako, I see you’ve brought a lich.’

“Well he’s a lich who could help out quite a bit. He was with me on my century long trip and is the best necromancer I know.”

“Taako that’s not helping!”

“Barry, I’ve got this.”

‘How could this lich help me?’

“He’s got over a century of experience in necromancy and if anyone could help me figure out this mystery of the static it would be him.”

‘Is that so?’

“Yep, he just needs a new bod. Preferably made by you so he doesn’t hear the static too.”

‘Sildar, is this something you genuinely want?’

Barry looks at Taako as the other whips around and mouths ‘Sildar’ at him, then looks back at the Raven Queen.

“Yes it is. Taako is the only family I have right now, and we could get the rest of the family back if I do this. So I want to do this.”

‘Then come here. I need to remove your soul from your magic so I can make you a new proper body.’

“Hold on. Taako needs a moment with his dearest brother in law.”

Taako pulls Barry away and just stares at him. Barry tilts his head a bit.

“Yes?”

“Who the fuck is Sildar?!”

“Me, that’s my name.”

“No, your name is Barry Bluejeans.”

“That’s… That’s the name I put on my application to the IPRE. My real name is Sildar Hallwinter.”

Taako just stares at Barry for a good while.

“Does Lup know this??”

“No…”

“YOU MARRIED MY SISTER AND DIDN’T EVEN TELL HER YOUR REAL NAME?!”

“I didn’t think it was important! We probably won’t ever go back!”

“BAROLD THAT IS YOUR NAME! OR SHOULD I SAY SILDAR!”

“Taako please.”

“Don’t you ‘Taako please.’ me! What the fuck?!”

“Ok, I should have told her. But I’d gotten used to it by then. I’ll even change it once this is all over so it’s legally Barry Bluejeans.”

“Good, because Sildar Hallwinter is the worst name I’ve ever heard. Gods you are the weirdest person I’ve ever met.”

“I could say the same about you.”

‘Are you two done?’

They look over to see the Raven Queen shaking with silent laughter.

“Yeah, we’re done. Now go get de-liched. I’m gonna grab your stuff.”

“Alright.”

Barry goes over to the Raven Queen and Taako tears a rift into the space in front of him, stepping through it and to Barry’s cave. He starts packing everything up and once he’s got it all he brings it over. Once he comes through he sees Barry’s soul floating around.

“Come here nerd, I’ll take you to my office until your body is ready.”

Taako gently takes Barry’s soul and heads to his office. He’d noticed it when he went to find Kravitz’s office the last time he was here. Once he’s inside he lets Barry’s soul go and puts everything aside. He’s careful with the robe and umbrella though, hanging them both up.

“Now we just wait. This should be boring.”

As they wait, Taako practices a few spells. Nothing extreme, just some cantrips. It was enough to waste the time while they waited for Barry to get his body. Once it’s ready Taako brings the soul back to the Raven Queen and gets him in his body. Once that’s done he hands over a set of Barry’s spare clothes.

“Not the best for a reaper, but anything else on you would look weird after this many years.”

“Wow, thanks Taako.”

“I could take them back and let you figure out clothes on your own.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“It would be nothing new to me, Bluejeans.”

‘Boys, I believe the two of you have a mission.’

“Alright bird mama, we’re on it. See you later.” Taako cuts open a rift with his umbrella scythe. “After you nerd.”

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you weren’t Taako.”

“Sure thing Sildar.”

Taako shoves Barry through the rift and follows him out. Behind them the Raven Queen laughs quietly. It was nice to have banter like that around here again. Now she just had to hope Kravitz got along with the both of them, even without that century the two of them had.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kravitz was waiting for Taako so he could teach him about the job, and is surprised when someone else comes out of the rift first. He’s followed by Taako so there must be a good reason.

“You are never gonna let me live that down are you?”

“You literally had a whole century to tell us.”

“I liked Barry better.”

“You still married my sister without telling her.”

Kravitz clears his throat, making the two look.

“Taako, who is this?”

“Barry, my brother in law and the newest reaper.”

“Ok, so why is he here?”

“Boss lady said we had a job.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t call her that.”

“She likes it, so I’m gonna keep doing it.”

Kravitz watches Barry raise his hand only for Taako to make him put it down.

“Barold you are an adult, just talk.”

“Fine, I was gonna ask him who he is.”

“He’s Kravitz. He’s had this job for who knows how long.”

“Alright, cool. So can we get started?”

Kravitz nods and motions for the two to follow him.

“This is your first job so I found something easy for you. A couple of new necromancers trying something they really shouldn’t be. Go in, give them a warning. If they don’t stop give them a spook. If that doesn’t work then it’s time to reap them. I’ll come help with that.”

Barry looks at Taako and then back at Kravitz.

“Give them a spook?”

“Like this Barry.”

Taako loses his skin as Barry looks back at him, making him jump back.

“Taako what the fuck?!”

“Oh calm down you big baby. You were basically a skeleton in a red robe when you were a lich. You have literally no room to talk.”

“Point taken. Now put your skin back on.”

“Big baby.”

Taako puts his skin back on. Kravitz sighs and shakes his head.

“Alright, go on. I’ll be here.”

With that the two of them head into the cave.

“Oh wow, another cave. Why is it always caves with necromancers?”

“I feel like I should be offended by that statement.” Barry looks at Taako.

“Well I did find you in a cave.”

Before they can start to banter again, a couple of elves in black robes come out. They point their wands at the two, sticking close.

“Who are you and how did you find us?” The male elf moves closer to his sister as he talks.

Taako looks at Barry and shrugs, then steps forward.

“Doesn’t matter who we are kid. You just need to stop all of this necromancy crap.”

The two young elves look at each other and then at Taako.

“Why should we?” The female elf speaks this time, standing up straighter.

“Because if you don’t this will happen.” With that Taako drops his skin and steps forward again. Both of the elves step back, startled. Barry looks over and notices, then drops his skin as well. As he does he changes his clothes back to his red robe.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to do here, but you’re going to get yourselves killed.”

“You don’t know that! Now leave us alone!”

Taako calls his umbrella scythe to his hand.

“If you don’t stop we’ll have to take your souls. That’s just how this works.”

The two back up again as all four of them hear coughing. Taako quickly puts his skin on as he goes to investigate.

“Barold watch these two. I’m gonna check that out.”

“Shouldn’t we get Kravitz?”

“Get him if you want, I want to check this.”

Taako heads around the two elves even as they try to stop him and goes into a back room. What he finds makes him stop dead in his tracks. An even younger elf was laying in the middle of what was obviously some kind of spell circle. Quickly he turns around and points his scythe at the other two.

“Wait, it’s not what you think!”

“Well start talking, because it looks pretty bad!”

“It’s… That’s our brother.”

The girl takes off around Taako and ducks his arm as he tries to grab her. He watches her sit the boy up and check on him, then hug him.

“So what was the plan here?”

“We were going to make him a lich so he wouldn’t be so sick all the time.”

Taako nods and goes to check out the circle, looking everything over.

“Well what you were about to do was kill him, plain and simple. This would have killed him and fucked up his soul. Where the hell did you learn this?”

“We found a group of necromancers, they taught us this.”

“Well they were using you.” Taako looks at the two older elves. “If you tell me where this group is I’ll get your brother some better care.”

“There is no better care, we’ve tried everywhere.”

“Look, I know a guy who could help you. You’ve just gotta listen to me.”

The two look at each other and Taako can see when they decide to try anyway. He also sees Kravitz reap them both before they can move.

“Taako I told you to come get me if they tried anything!”

“Leave me alone.”

“No! This is important!”

“Fuck off! Just leave me alone Kravitz!” Taako cuts himself a rift to the astral plane and steps through quickly, making sure it shuts behind him.

“Dude… Do you even know anything about Taako?”

“No, we just met the other day.”

“Well no wonder. Taako’s a twin, just like those kids.”

“So?”

“So go talk to him about it.”

“Can you handle this?”

“Yeah, I’ve got it.”

Kravitz cuts them a portal and Barry brings the two souls to the Raven Queen as Kravitz goes to Taako’s office. He knocks and then makes his way in, leaning on the wall.

“What do you want?”

“I just wanted to know why you didn’t follow the instructions I gave you.”

“Because I’d like to hold onto my humanity. Something my sister told me to try and not give up if I didn’t have to.”

“Your sister… Where is she?”

“Dead probably. What’s it matter to you?”

“Barry told me she was your twin.”

“Yeah, we did everything together.”

“Is that why you were defending those two?”

“Those kids only had each other, all three of them. Now that little one is alone. You know what he’ll probably do? He’ll either die alone or go back to that group they were with and learn necromancy so he can try and get them back. They were his everything and you took that from him.”

“They were going to kill him, you said so yourself.”

“He wouldn’t have been alone at least.”

“You’d rather that child be dead than alone?”

“I know that when I was little I told myself that if I ever lost Lup I would rather die than be without her. I’ve done that, but unfortunately I’m still here. She’s not.”

“I don’t understand that at all.”

“Of course not, you were probably an only child. So just leave me alone already. You won’t understand it no matter how many times I tell you.”

“Taako-”

“I said leave me alone, before I blast you through that wall.” Taako picks up Lup’s umbrella and points it at Kravitz.

“What are you going to do, beat me with that umbrella?”

“I’m gonna Magic Missile you through that damn wall.”

Before Kravitz can react Taako casts Magic Missile in a sixth level spell slot, sending Kravitz through the wall. Once he’s through the wall fixes itself, leaving Kravitz on the ground in shock. Barry comes by and looks at Kravitz.

“Gonna guess that talk didn’t go well. You’re really bad at this.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“Oh wow, single child. Go figure.”

Barry heads into Taako’s office to check on him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kravitz leaves the two, going to talk to the Raven Queen. He needed some guidance, or at the very least some company that wouldn’t make him feel awful. He didn’t know what he was doing wrong here.

‘Kravitz, I can see you’re troubled. Come sit with me.’

“Gladly.”

He walks over and sits with her, leaning on her when she offers it to him. He closes his eyes when he feels her comforting touch and just relaxes.

‘So, why are you troubled?’

“It’s… It’s Taako. I can’t seem to do anything right with him and I don’t get it.”

‘Well you two led very different lives. He had a group of people that were his family, and he had a whole century to grow with them and love them. You’ve been alone with only me for so long. Perhaps you are out of practice.’

“Oh… Do you think that can actually happen?”

‘Of course, it even happens to gods. It happens to Istus frequently. She gets so caught up in knitting that she forgets to just let things happen and let her followers know she is still with them. She forgets to keep in contact with the rest of us too. She is one of the older gods though, so I do not blame her for that.’

“Did you just call Istus old? You know she hates it when you do that.”

‘Kravitz, don’t change the subject.’

“I’m sorry. It’s just easier to hear about things like that than to deal with this.”

‘I know, but you must do it. If only to make your job easy.’

“Alright, I’ll try.”

‘Good, now off you go. He’s ready to listen. Make sure to be ready when it is his turn.’

“I will.”

Kravitz gets up and goes to Taako’s office. Carefully he steps inside and finds Taako sitting on the floor with Barry’s head in his lap.

“What, need another lesson? Too bad, Barry’s asleep.”

“I just came to talk.”

“Well I don’t want to talk.”

Kravitz sits down in front of Taako.

“Then just listen. I’m sorry, about what I did. But it’s my job, yours too. We do the hard things because no one else will.”

“Funny, I told Lup the same thing once about one of the worlds we were on. She didn’t talk to me for a week after that. She was determined to do what we had to without hurting anyone.”

“What happened?”

“She got her way, and our enemy got stronger. What else? But after that she told me that she didn’t want to live like that. Doing the hard thing because it was the only option. There’s always another option.”

“There was no other option then.”

“Yes there was, but you didn’t wait to find it. You took the easy way out, even though they were kids. Those two probably weren’t even adults yet, they were eighty max.”

“That doesn’t excuse them.”

“It should, they didn’t know any better. They were kids and you killed them. Now that little one is gonna die alone. That’s on your hands, you hear me? You should have waited.”

“This is hopeless. You’re too attached to this.”

“Fuck you. Go away if you think I’m so hopeless, you won’t be the first.”

Kravitz gets up and leaves, then stop outside the door. That part did resonate with him, but it was too late for that. So he goes to his office and sits in his chair, starting on his paperwork. It was going to be a long night for him.

Taako looks down at Barry, only to find the human staring back up at him.

“You gonna yell at me too?”

“No, because I feel the same way. Only if Lup were here, she would have kicked his ass. I thought about getting up and trying it, but you were holding onto my shirt pretty tight. Figured you needed me here.”

“Well aren’t you just a sweetheart Barry?” Taako takes off his hat and sets it aside, then leans on the wall and closes his eyes. “I wish she was here. We could have helped those kids before that asshole got anywhere near them.”

“I know this is gonna sound bad coming from me, but I don’t think it would have helped. They were determined to save their brother.”

“Maybe seeing me and Lup would have made them stop. We would understand them in a way not even you can.”

“I know. I believe you Taako. Now get some rest, you’re gonna need it.”

“You too, you’re gonna need all the rest you can get so you can keep me from destroying Kravitz.”

Barry chuckles and nods, closing his eyes and holding onto Taako. They weren’t usually this close, but missing the same person made them want to stay close. No need to lose each other too. They stay that way until they feel the Raven Queen calling to them. So they get up, Barry handing Taako his hat after the other helps him up. Then they head out, going to see their boss.

‘Hello you two. I have some more jobs for you. Kravitz, I have a solo job for you already in your book. Taako, Sildar, I have another job for the two of you.’

Kravitz leaves, happy to get away from the awkwardness of being near Taako again.

“So, we get to go on jobs without bone man already? Happy to hear it.”

‘This isn’t a normal job, so don’t get too excited. I’ve talked with the other gods and found one of the relics you told me about Taako. If you two could go to Refuge and retrieve it, then you can work on getting your family back.’

“Now this sounds nice and all, but we have no way of containing it. I’d love to trust you with it, I would. But this is a powerful thing. It could corrupt even you and that’s the last thing we need.”

‘I understand. How would you like to proceed then?’

Taako looks at Barry.

“What do you think? Should we drop this hint off with Lucretia?”

“Who’s gonna be able to go get it Taako? She can’t do that on her own and right now no one but the seven of us can get near that thing without being instantly tempted.”

“So we just leave it?”

“I heard about Refuge, it’s just a big bubble right now. The relic isn’t going anywhere.”

“We can’t just leave it there until Lucretia gets her shit together! You know how bad she is! She’s a world class procrastinator!”

“I know! But there’s nothing we can do!”

‘Boys, please calm down. Istus is watching over Refuge, so nothing will happen. I can promise you that.’

“Ok, so what do we do now?”

‘Perhaps you should look for your sister. I’ve heard a lot about her and I would be happy to recruit her if you can bring her here.’

“Alright… Yeah we can do that.”

‘I hope to hear back from you two soon.’

The two of them head back to Taako’s office, talking through any and all possibilities on Lup’s location. Surely they could find her before everything went south. It would only be a matter of time with the Hunger.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Taako’s office swiftly turns into a mess of all kinds of different papers strewn about. Now they could start working on something serious together. Finding Lup meant that they could start on fixing the things that Lucretia had done.

“Taako, should we find the others?”

“Probably yeah, but without help from the baby voidfish they won’t remember anything. Hell they won’t even remember you Barry. I know I sure didn’t remember you. I didn’t remember anyone.”

“So maybe one of us should go get some of the ichor from the baby voidfish, enough to give everyone a sip.”

“Well let’s think about how much we need. If boss lady gives her a new body she won’t need any. Merle and Maggie will, and so will Davenport. Lucretia has definitely already had some so she doesn’t need any. She should have her memories fed to the voidfish honestly. Let her remember in a few years who she is.”

“Taako, we can’t do that.”

“You don’t want to do that. I could do it easily.”

“You would need another voidfish.”

“That baby would have a baby eventually.”

“She would probably be long dead by then.”

“Oh… Human life spans are so fucking short.”

“Yeah they are.”

“Alright, so back on task. We need enough for three people. I can probably get that in one trip, I just gotta make it up there and back quickly. Then she won’t notice.”

“Then we have to find the others. How do we do that?”

“Well she put me on the road with a cooking show… Where would she put Merle?”

“On the beach maybe? He was a beach dwarf to begin with.”

“Ok, so we check out beach dwarf settlements. What about Mags?”

“I have no idea. Magnus would be fine just about anywhere. He’s a likeable guy.”

“Maybe something with wood working? You know he was getting good at that because of Fisher.”

“Alright… Raven’s Roost is big on that kind of stuff.”

“Then we check there first.”

“Now all we need to figure out is Davenport.”

“Where the hell would she even put him? His whole life was the mission.”

“On a boat maybe? We’ll never find him if that’s the case. Unless we can just bring Magnus and Merle and that would work.”

“I bet Magnus could make her tell us where he is.”

“They were pretty close.”

“Now we just need to find my sister.” Taako sits down and rubs his face. “The only lead we have is her umbrella.”

“I know.” Barry walks over to the umbrella and picks it up. “I remember when she made this. She thought it was the coolest thing ever.”

“I told her she was a clown.”

“She tried for days to make it sound cool but eventually I had to stop her.”

“She was such a dork… I miss her.”

“I miss her too Taako, that’s why we’re doing this. We’re gonna get her back.”

“Yeah, so why don’t you go and start on leads for Magnus and Merle. I’m gonna head back to Wave Echo Cave and see what I can find.”

“Sounds good. I’ll check in with you later.”

Barry leaves and Taako picks up the umbrastaff, looking it over. With a sigh he cuts a portal to Wave Echo Cave and steps through, then he holds the staff up.

“Alright, show me Lup. I know you can do that much.”

Taako waves the umbrella around, pointing it at just about anything to try and figure out where Lup went. When nothing happens he sits down and puts his head in his hands.

“I just want my sister back. I need her here so I can talk to her. I don’t know what I’m doing anymore. My heart’s gone and I need it back.”

Taako shakes and tries not to cry, even though no one was around. When he hears something he jumps to his feet and looks around. What he finds is the umbrastaff wobbling.

“Great, now I’m spooking myself, go figure.” With a sigh he picks it up. “Piece of shit. Lup was so proud of this, couldn’t even defend herself with it. Should just toss it.” With that thought in mind he raises his arm, ready to throw it as far as he can. That is until he hears a voice. So he quickly cuts a portal to the Astral Plane and leaves.

‘Any luck so far?’

Taako looks up, finding himself in front of the Raven Queen.

“We uh… We have some ideas on where a couple of our friends are. Still nothing on my sister.”

‘Well I’m sure you will find her soon.’

“I sure hope so.”

Taako heads to his office and gets to work on looking for Lup. The umbrella wasn’t going to be any help so he had to keep an eye out. If only he and Barry had some kind of lead that wasn’t years old.

He puts the umbrella aside and keeps working on all of his leads, getting rid of the oldest ones. He narrows it down to a few places he remembered her talking about and Wave Echo Cave. There had to be some reason why her things were there. Once that’s all planned out he starts on his leads, not noticing the umbrella moving a bit as he leaves.

Barry comes back to Taako’s office some time later, sitting down at the desk. Merle and Magnus weren’t anywhere to be found. The beach dwarves only had a few choice words about Merle and Raven’s Roost… Poor Magnus. He’d had a good life and one greedy asshole had torn it away from him. Raven’s Roost was just gone. If only he’d gone looking sooner. After some thinking he gets up and goes to talk to the Raven Queen. He needed to try and make things easy on Magnus when his time came. Even if that was a long time away, time got the better of all of them.

“Raven Queen, I have something to ask of you.”

‘Ask away.’

“A town called Raven’s Roost was destroyed not that long ago and many people were killed. One of them was married to Magnus, one of my family. I won’t ask you to make her a reaper, he wouldn’t want that. But can you make it so she can wait for him before joining the others?”

‘Normally I wouldn’t even entertain the idea, but I can see how much your family means to you. Go find her and take her to the middle of the ocean of souls. You will find an island there where she can wait out the time in peace.’

“Thank you, this means a lot to me and I’m sure he will appreciate it too.”

‘You seven are going to do something great, this is the least I can do.’

Barry nods and heads off to go find Julia’s soul. Once he finds her he brings her to the island and starts talking to her, explaining everything. He tells her about the Magnus he knew, and she tells him about the Magnus she knew. Once they’re done for the time being, Barry leaves her to her work. She wanted to build a little house so she could wait comfortably.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Barry makes his way back to Taako’s office and finds the elf sitting at the desk, still looking for Lup.

“Nothing on Lup yet?”

“Absolutely nothing. Not even in Wave Echo Cave. What about you?”

“Merle skipped out on the beach dwarves about a year ago…”

“What about Magnus?”

“He was staying in Raven’s Roost… But it was burned down the other day. From what I could gather he’s out of town so he’s ok.”

“Barry… What aren’t you telling me?”

“He got married Taako… His wife was still at Raven’s Roost when it burned.”

“Fuck… Magnus is gonna be heartbroken. We’ve still gotta catch him when he gets back to Raven’s Roost.”

“What if we play messenger?”

“Barry that’s fucked up.” Taako looks over at Barry, shaking his head a bit.

“It would be the best way to get him to drink the ichor.”

“Ichor that I don’t have yet. I’ve been too busy looking for Lup.”

“Well it’s now or never Taako.”

“Fine, I’ll be back in a bit.”

Taako gets up and cuts himself a portal, stepping through. He runs into someone though, someone who makes him back right through the portal and shut it quickly.

“Taako? Taako what happened?”

“It was Davenport. He’s on Lucretia’s base.”

“What? Why would he be there?”

“I don’t know! I just know that he was right there in front of me!”

“Well you’ve gotta get him! If anyone can talk some sense into Lucretia its him.”

“Alright, I’ll try to get behind him this time.”

Taako cuts a new rift and goes through. He quickly finds Davenport and pulls him through. Then he goes back and starts looking for the baby voidfish. He needed to be fast or someone was bound to notice him. Once he finds what he needs he quickly heads back to the portal and shuts it behind him once he’s through.

“Captain please!”

What he finds is Barry struggling with Davenport, or what appears to be several of Davenport. Looks like he was still good at illusion magic after all.

“Barry just use a spell on him! He’ll forgive us!”

“Fine!” Barry casts Command on Davenport and takes the flask from Taako, passing it to Davenport. “Drink.” Once he’s had a drink Barry gently takes it and hands it back to Taako.

“Now we wait.”

“I’m gonna help him through this, go get Magnus. Once that’s done we can find Merle.”

“Alright, I’ll be back.” Taako heads out through a new rift. He had heard that there was some big thing going on in Neverwinter, so he went there first. What he finds on the outskirts of town is Magnus, heading into town. Quickly Taako runs over.

“Hey, are you Magnus Burnsides?”

“Uh… Who’s asking?”

“Look man, I just need to know. I was sent to find him because something is going down at Raven’s Roost.”

“What? What’s happening?”

“I don’t know, I was sent by a… Julia.”

“Jules… Climb on man, we’ve gotta get going.” Taako quickly climbs on the wagon as Magnus turns it around and quickly heads back the way he came. “So did she say what was happening?”

“No, she just wanted me to find you. So I hopped onto a wagon and booked it here. It got stolen when I stopped to take a leak so I had to run and hope I’d catch up with you.”

Magnus looks over at Taako. Taako had made himself look worn out and disheveled, so his story seemed to check out.

“When did she send you?”

“Early this morning, wasn’t even light out.”

“What were you doing in Raven’s Roost?”

“I was stopping off there to rest for the night. I’m a traveler.”

“So why you?”

“She said she didn’t want me getting hurt. Something like that.”

“Alright, we should be there in a couple hours. I knew I shouldn’t have gone to Neverwinter.”

“Do you know what’s going on?”

“There’s a guy who was trying to do some nasty things in Raven’s Roost. We stopped him and ran him out of town. From the sounds of it, he’s trying something while I’m not there.”

“Sounds like a bad guy. Well after we get back I’ll help you track him down.”

“Why would you do that for a stranger?”

“The way you’re saying it, Julia saved my hide by sending me after you. I’ve got a debt to pay back if he tried anything.”

“You’re not so bad man. What’s your name?”

“... Lup. Lup’s my name.”

“Weird name, but alright.”

“Weird to you maybe, but I am an elf after all.”

“Yeah, you’ve got a point. I guess Magnus would be a weird name to you.”

“A little bit.”

After that the two continue on in silence. When they get to Raven’s Roost even Taako is in shock, Barry hadn’t told him that the whole place had collapsed. He thought it was just burned down.

“Jules… Julia!”

Magnus jumps off of the wagon and starts towards the edge. Taako quickly follows and stops him before he can get too close.

“Magnus! Don’t just run off the edge! You can’t help her, she’s gone. They all are.”

“Shut up! You don’t know that!”

“The whole place is collapsed! No one could survive that fall and you know it!” Magnus jerks away from Taako and falls to his knees, sobbing and shaking. Taako hands Magnus the flask, this was the best way to inoculate him. “Here, take a drink. I think you could use it.”

“No.”

“Magnus, you’re hurting. Just take a sip and take the edge off.”

“Fine…” Magnus takes the flask and has a quick sip, then hands it back to Taako. Once it’s out of his hands he holds his head as the memories come back. Taako quickly grabs Magnus and pulls him away from the edge.

“You’re ok Maggie, I’ve got you.”

“Taako..?”

“Yeah, just take it slow. Don’t try to remember too much or it’ll mess up your brain. One memory at a time.”

“Why now?”

“I’ll explain later, just relax and remember.”

Taako holds one of his closest friends and gently coaxes him through all of his memories, taking the time to make sure he didn’t hurt himself. Once it’s all done Magnus starts crying again, holding Taako close.

“It still hurts Taako.”

“I know Magnus, but you’re not alone. I’m here for you.”

Taako comforts Magnus as best he can, knowing the other was hurting just as much as he was. They’d both lost the one person they thought they’d never lose. Unfortunately they didn’t have the time to mourn.

“Taako, where are the others?”

“Barry has Davenport and he should be remembering. Lucretia had him. No idea where Merle is. Could be anywhere really.”

“What about Lup?”

“She… I don’t know. She might be dead. Might be lost out there in a body, not knowing who she is. I can’t find her.”

“Shit… Taako I’m sorry.”

“Mags, you just lost your wife. I’m sorry it had to happen that way.”

Magnus nods and looks towards the remains of Raven’s Roost.

“Can we go see the others?”

“Yeah, just don’t freak out when I do this.”

Taako gets up and cuts a rift into the air. Magnus quickly jumps up and looks it over.

“What the hell Taako?”

“I’ll explain later. Let’s just go.”

With that, the two of them step through the rift.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Taako pushes Magnus over to the desk and makes him sit, then checks on Barry.

“Hey, how’d it go in here?”

“Davenport is uh… Not very happy with me. I did use Command on him.”

“It was important Barry, you know that. Anyway, where is he?”

“Talking with the Raven Queen I think.”

“Oh geez, that old geezer. I’ll go get him. Stay here with Mags.”

“Does he remember?”

“Yeah, you’re good.”

“Alright, thanks.”

Taako nods and goes to find both of his bosses. It was a weird thought, both of his bosses in one place. That shouldn’t happen. Not for a long time. What he finds is them having a civil, if very confusing conversation.

“Cap’n’port, quit confusing the boss lady.”

“Taako? Boss lady?”

“Yeah, she’s my boss too. Now enough with trying to explain, she can’t understand it. It’s all static to her.”

“I understand that, but how?”

“Fisher. It’s Lucretia’s doing, she fed her journals to Fisher. Remember the song from the Legato?”

“Oh… That’s right, she was soaked when she got on the ship. She must have got some of that stuff in her mouth.”

“Exactly. Now let’s get back to the others. We have to start looking for Merle.”

“What about Magnus?”

“Just brought him back. Also, go easy on him. Something bad happened and he’s shaken up.”

“Nothing can shake-”

“His wife was killed. That enough to shake him you think?”

“Oh…”

“Yeah, so like I said. Go easy on him Davenport.”

“Alright.”

‘Taako, before you go. I’d like a word.’

“Yeah. Dav you go on ahead, I’ll meet you there. So what’s up?”

‘This is a big mission and I feel like things are only going to get harder from now on. So I’m assigning Kravitz to this mission as well.’

“Oh… You don’t have to do that.”

‘He’s well versed on searching out people, so he will go looking for your last missing member.’

“Alright… Thank you.”

‘You are very welcome. Now go on, your family needs you.’

Taako nods and heads off to his office. When he gets there he finds Kravitz standing nearby.

“Taako, can I talk to you? Privately?”

“Sure thing. Just gotta do one thing.” Taako kicks the door and hears a couple swears. “Right, your office?”

Kravitz nods and heads to his office. Taako follows and casts Silence on the door once they’re inside.

“First I’d like to apologize. I can’t fully understand your reasoning, but I am sorry.”

“Well the forgiving part will have to wait. I’m not so good at that.”

“Right… Now I’ve been tasked with finding one of your friends, Merle Highchurch. Any ideas on how to find him?”

“Nope, that old fart could be anywhere.”

“Ok, so would you like to come with me and track him? It might be easier.”

“Yeah, no need to have you scaring him to death before we go confront Lucretia.”

“Isn’t that one of your friends?”

“She’s the one who did this to us. I don’t know if I’d put her in the friend category anymore.”

“Alright then… Let’s get going.”

Kravitz cuts open a portal and lets Taako go first, following after him.

“Alright, looks like Phandalin. Now, if I were an old dwarf with a plant fetish, where would I be?”

“A what now?”

“Trust me, you don’t want to know. Just be glad there aren’t any plants in the Astral Plane.”

“Still… Are you sure?”

“I lived on the same ship as him for a century, I watched that develop.”

“I am so sorry.”

“Yeah, there’s a reason no plants were allowed on board. Now let me think.”

Kravitz watches Taako, following him as he starts to walk around. At one point he sees Taako cast disguise self.

“What are you doing?”

“Blending in. Now shut up and give me your arm.”

Taako pulls Kravitz’s arm around his shoulders and leans on him a bit, making it look like the two of them were just strolling together.

“There are other ways to blend in.”

“Sure thing goth boy. You’re the one wearing a full on suit. Now are you going to try and match me or are you going to keep standing out like a sore thumb?”

Kravitz sighs and takes his suit jacket off, wrapping it around Taako’s shoulders. Then he takes his tie off and shoves it in his pocket. Once he’s done he puts his arm back around Taako.

“Is that better?”

“Very much so. I knew you would think of something. Now, I know there’s a park around here somewhere. That or a bar is our best bet. It’s still daylight so I say we try the park first.”

“Well lead the way. It’s been a while since I’ve been around here like this.”

“What, just walking around?”

“Yes, I don’t have much time for it.”

“No wonder you’re so boring. Maybe we can find you some down time and do something fun for a change.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Why, worried you’d actually have fun and I’d be right?”

“You wish. I’m just too busy. We have a hard job.”

“A hard job for one person, but there’s three of us now. Once all of this is over you’ll see.”

“Will this ever be over though?”

“Of course, it has to be. One way or another this will end.”

“That’s very true.”

“Now, back to the reason we’re out here. Merle fucking Highchurch.”

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you hated him.”

“No, I don’t hate Merle. I just wish he knew how to stay put. The old dwarf couldn’t stay put if you chained him to a wall.”

“Your friends are something else.”

“They’re more than friends at this point. We’re family, which is why I can say all that shit about Merle. Speaking of, I think I see him. Oh gross, is he talking to a tree?”

“Let’s hope it’s just a tree. I’ve heard dryads like this park.”

“Oh no. No I do not want to even think about that. That is like, his best fantasy come to life. We have to get over there.”

Kravitz nods and speeds up a bit more as Taako does, ready to cut them a portal if it came down to it. Once they get there Taako motions for Kravitz to open a portal. Once its open Taako just pushes him through and follows. Kravitz quickly follows after them and shuts the portal behind him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“I’ve got Merle!”

“Did you give him the ichor?”

“Fuck no, that’s your job!” Taako shoves Merle over to Barry and hands him the flask. “Good luck.” With that he leaves the office, pulling Kravitz with him.

“Taako!” Barry sighs and casts Command again, making Merle drink the ichor and putting it aside. Then he starts working on getting Merle through his memories. “Just relax Merle, I’ve got you.”

Taako peeks back into the office and nods, then shuts the door and walks away with Kravitz.

“That was kind of rude to leave him back there with Merle.”

“He deserves it after not telling me about Raven’s Roost when I went to go get Magnus. Now, I still need your help. I’ve gotta find my sister.”

“You still haven’t found her?”

“Nope, and I’ve checked just about anywhere I could think of. She wasn’t in Wave Echo Cave, any of the places where her relic just trashed the place, nothing. This is just like when she went missing in the first place. Barry and I searched for weeks before Lucretia pulled her dumb stunt.”

“Do you think she got a body like Barry did?”

“It’s possible. But she would be just any old normal elf. She wouldn’t even remember her name. Lucretia wiped her completely away. So searching for “Lup” wouldn’t work.”

“Oh… Then how do you find someone like that?”

“I have no idea. I don’t know if I even should. She would be living a normal life out there.”

“Taako, that’s your sister.”

“Yeah, and a normal life is something we always wanted. Why should I uproot her from that?”

“You don’t even know if that’s true. Let’s just find her first. If she is living a normal life… Then you can decide what to do from there.”

“Alright, let’s start looking.”

The two of them start looking, going over every place Taako had been to in the search. When they come back empty handed Taako just heads to his office. He needed a break away from this as much as he hated to admit it. What he finds is a sleeping Magnus propped up against a sleeping Barry, and Davenport sitting in the corner with Merle, both sound asleep as well. Carefully he walks over and sits with Magnus, leaning on him and closing his eyes.

“What?”

“It’s just me Magnus, go back to sleep.”

“Any luck on finding Lup?”

“No, not yet.”

“Well, you’ll find her. I know it.”

“Thanks Mags, now go back to sleep.”

“You too.”

Taako feels Magnus slip back into sleep and relaxes into it, letting the comfort of his family lull him into a sleep he didn’t really need. He stays like that until a nightmare jolts him awake. So he carefully gets up and grabs Lup’s umbrella, leaving and cutting a portal to what was hopefully the middle of nowhere. He finds himself in a forest and he just starts walking in a direction.

“You’ve gotta be somewhere, and this crummy umbrella of yours is gonna tell me where. You hear me? You’re somewhere on this damn plane and if this keeps up I’ll just go get the Starblaster and leave. Then you’ll be back. That’s all I want. I want you back Lulu.”

He drops the umbrella and grumbles to himself, picking it back up and chucking it away. After realizing what he’d done he sees fire, something that shouldn’t be happening. Then he sees her. He sees Lup.

“Took you long enough!”

“You were in the umbrella?! You got eaten by your own goddamn umbrella? Lup you shit you didn’t tell me it could do that!”

“I didn’t think it would be important!”

“Well it was!”

“I know! Now, what the hell has been going on? I haven’t been able to hear much since I was in there.”

“Well sit down as best you can. This is one hell of a doozy.”

The two of them sit down and Taako tells his sister everything. Every detail of his life after Lucretia had taken their memories all the way up to the present. By the time it’s all over hours had passed and the sun was starting to shine over the horizon. Not that it mattered to them. They could do this for days and never think of the time passing by.

“Shit… That’s awful Koko. All that because Lucretia didn’t want to listen to the majority vote.”

“Yeah. So, you ready to head back? We can get you a bod, make you a reaper, then we go face Lucretia. Then we get the artifacts and put the light back together.”

“What then?”

“We get ready to fight the Hunger. We can’t leave this time.”

“Taako, that’s crazy. We can’t fight it.”

“Well I’m tired of running! I want to stay here this time. This is a nice place, a place where we could make a real home. Don’t you want that anymore?”

“Of course I do, you know that.”

“Then help me. Help me convince the others that we can fight this thing and end it once and for all.”

“Alright… Let’s go back. I want to get this new body and then I’m gonna smooch my husband.”

“Yeah… I’ve got something to tell you about your dear husband. Come on.” Taako gets up and cuts a rift to the Astral Plane, then heads through with Lup.

“Did he do some stupid necromancy shit again?”

“No, but his name isn’t Barry Bluejeans.”

“What? Taako that’s his name. That’s what was on his application form to the IPRE.”

“Oh yeah? Why don’t we ask the Raven Queen?”

Taako looks to the Raven Queen.

‘Well hello you two. How can I help you?’

“I found Lup, so she needs a new body.”

‘Of course. Come here Lup, I need to separate your soul from your magic.’

“Yeah, I just need one thing cleared up first. Is Barry’s name not Barry Bluejeans?”

‘It is not his name yet, but it will be soon. His name now is Sildar Hallwinter.’

“Told you Lup!”

“Ok, we’re gonna have to have a talk when I get a body. Don’t tell him I’m here.”

“I’ll stay right here until it’s all done Lulu, I wanna see this.” Lup goes over to the Raven Queen and lets her soul be extracted from her magic. Then as a soul she floats over to Taako. Taako holds the soul close, being gentle. “I did this with your boy toy too. Your new body shouldn’t take too long. Then we can go see the others.”

Once the body is done Taako brings his sister’s soul over. It’s not long after that that she sits up and hugs Taako. Taako hugs back tightly and nuzzles his sister.

“I missed you Lup.”

“I missed you too Taako. Now, let’s go see the others.”

Taako pulls Lup up and they head back to his office. He heads in first and sees everyone awake and planning. Barry looks up and goes over to Taako once he notices him.

“Hey, did you go looking for her again.”

“No, just had a nightmare and needed to walk it off. I did find something though.”

“Oh yeah?”

With that, Lup kicks open the door with a grin.

“Guess who’s back!”

There’s a pause and then Barry is running over to Lup, picking her up and kissing her. Then the others head over to hug her. Of course Magnus scoops them all up in a big bear hug. Taako smiles and watches his family. Now there was just one person left, but he didn’t think the reception would be quite this nice.

“Now, Barry Bluejeans I need to have a word with you.”

“Uh… Why’d you say my name like that Lup?”

“Because I know your name isn’t Barry and I’d like to know why you never told me.”

Taako snorts and leaves, letting Barry fend for himself with Lup and the rest of the crew that didn’t know of his real name. He goes to talk to Kravitz and let him know that the search for Lup was over.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kravitz was sitting at his desk, trying to think of anywhere else to look for Taako’s sister. He wanted to make it up to him. When he hears knocking he looks up and waves.

“Hey Taako, did you get the rest you needed?”

“No, but I did get something better. Lup’s back.”

“You found her? Where was she?”

“In her dumb umbrella.”

“She… She was in the umbrella?”

“I know, I still haven’t gotten an explanation on that. I’m sure once she’s done with Barold we’ll talk and I’ll get some kind of explanation.”

“Well I’m glad you found her.”

“Thanks.”

Kravitz starts cleaning up his office.

“So, what comes next?”

“We go storm Lucretia’s base and then start looking for the relics. Won’t be long after that when shit will go down.”

“Plus you still have this job.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“So what’s the plan for right now?”

“Figure out how to scare Lucretia. I know she’s probably already looking for Davenport so we just have to catch her on the base, or lure her there.”

“You’re going to use him as bait?”

“He’s got illusion magic. I’m sure he’ll come up with some kind of plan all on his own.”

“Still, using your captain as bait?”

“Trust me, he’ll likely pitch the idea himself. We haven’t talked strategy yet. I think we all wanted to search every inch of this planet for Lup first.”

“You’re all very devoted to each other.”

“We’re a family. After a century how could we be anything else?”

“You could all hate each other.”

“Oh I’m sure we’ve all hated each other at one point or another, but we got over it. We formed strong bonds. Hell we had to form bonds before we even got on that ship. That was what the engine ran on.”

“Your ships engine runs on bonds?”

“Yeah, so the closer you are with everyone on the ship the better it runs. Having me and Lup was definitely a good start. Then we all got to know each other before it even got close to mission time.”

“That makes sense. Makes the ship run better.”

“Yeah, and if some of us got a little close in that hundred years… Well it made the engine run better so no one really cared.”

“You’re talking about Lup and Barry, right?”

“Well… We were all we had for one hundred years. Needless to say there have been some odd relationships on that ship.”

“Oh? Like what?”

“Magnus and Lucretia was a weird one. That lasted two cycles before they both decided they weren’t good for each other. I tried to get with Barry at one point but he made it pretty clear he only had the hots for Lup.”

“They must have a strong bond.”

“Strongest I’ve ever seen. They made eyes at each other without realizing it for fifty-four cycles. I had to watch them do that dumb song and dance for fifty-four years. Then finally all it took was one song and they realizing they were meant for each other. Took them long enough.”

“That must have been frustrating.”

“It was the worst. Worked out in the end though. They’re back together.”

“Why do I feel like you’re telling me this because you still have feelings for someone in your crew?”

“Well… Because I am. It’s too bad we never got our chance though. I was gonna try… I’d seen Lup do the pining thing and I wasn’t about to do it too, but then Lucretia ruined everything. I didn’t get to tell him.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’m not going to tell him. I’m gonna move on. He doesn’t need that.”

“Taako… You could tell him. I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“I would though, so it’s not happening. Can we drop it now?”

“Fine. Then why else are you here?”

“Well… I wanted to tell you the same thing I was going to tell him, but I think I might have ruined my chances. So I’m gonna go talk to the others now.”

“Taako wait.”

Quickly Taako leaves the room and goes to his own office.

What he finds is everyone planning out how to get to Lucretia and keep her on the base. So he walks over and puts his hands on the desk.

“Ok, what’s the plan so far? Because I wanna know if it’s a shit plan or not.”

“Davenport wants to use himself as bait,” Lup says.

“Well I say let him. She’s probably run herself ragged trying to find him and will be at the base by now. We pop Davenport up there, let him meander around until he’s got her alone, then we pop out of a portal and grab her.”

“Thank you Taako. Now, how do we get up there?” Davenport looks at Taako, figuring he had the answer.

“Same way I got you here. Inter-dimensional rift.”

“Of course.”

“So when you’re all ready, we can start this.”

“Wait, how is Cap’n’port gonna contact us Taako?”

“Simple Mags, I’ll go with him. I’ll stay hidden until he gives the signal. Then I’ll open a portal for the rest of you.”

“Taako that’s way too dangerous. This is Lucretia we’re talking about. She’s bound to have some kind of wards to make sure you can’t get up there.” Lup gives Taako a look.

“She’s probably got wards against liches, not reapers Lup. So she won’t even know I’m there.”

“Ok, next problem. How are you going to hide? You can’t just go invisible kid.”

Taako looks at Merle and then at Davenport.

“How many spell slots have you got Cap? Use invisibility on me before we go and we’ll be set for an hour. It probably won’t take long to get her alone, so once we do I open the portal, you drop the spell, and then we’re good. Any other objections?” Taako looks around at everyone. “Good, then lets get going Davenport.”

Taako cuts a rift in front of himself and lets Davenport go through first, then follows after him as the rift closes. After that’s done Davenport casts Invisibility on Taako.

“Remember, we only have an hour. So if it starts to wear off just tap me on the shoulder and I’ll cast it again.”

“Alright, let’s go find her.”

With that, the two of them start towards Lucretia’s office first. That would be the best place to look for her. Of course it’s empty, so they keep looking. The two of them run into a few people that are happy to see Davenport again, but still no Lucretia.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Davenport!”

The two of them stop and turn, looking at Lucretia. What they see is something neither of them expected. Lucretia looked older, much older than the past six years should have made her look. Not even stress would have been that hard on her. So they both head over.

“Oh Davenport, I was so worried about you. I’m glad you’re back.”

“Davenport!”

“Yes… Come on, let’s go to my office. I need some rest.”

Lucretia turns and starts walking towards her office. Taako gently taps Davenport on the shoulder, noticing that the spell was wearing off. Davenport quickly casts it again and the two follow Lucretia into her office. Once the door is shut Taako leans on it and waits patiently for Davenport to give the signal.

“I’m sorry I didn’t look harder for you Davenport, but a report came in about a relic… The Animus Bell. Who knew that could cause so much pain. Serves me right I suppose. I keep Barry at arms length to keep myself safe and his relic does this to me.”

Taako shakes his head and casts Arcane Lock on the door, then heads over to Lucretia. Davenport sees and drops the spell, making Lucretia jump when she sees Taako right in front of her.

“Taako! How, what’s going on?”

“Family meeting Lucretia.” Taako cuts a portal into the astral plane and sticks his head through. “Go time.”

Everyone comes out of the portal, but they all stop in shock as they look at Lucretia.

“What… How are you all here?”

“Don’t play around Lucretia, we all remember. I got everyone back together and they all know what happened six years ago. It’s time to hand over what relics you have and step down. You’ve done enough damage.”

Taako was playing it calm, but he didn’t feel calm. He was ready to lash out at Lucretia, yell at her for all the things she’d done. He couldn’t though, not with how she looked. None of them had ever aged on the Starblaster, so this was new. When he feels a comforting hand on his back he leans into it, needing the support. He knew it was Lup, feeling the same way he was. Humans aged too fast, but not this fast.

“I’m sorry… I just wanted to make things right.”

“Well now you have to make things right by us.” Lup steps forward, staring down Lucretia much like Taako was.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Take Davenport and Barry down to the Starblaster. I know you have it here. That’s our plan B for if we don’t do this in time.”

“Lup, you and Merle should go get the relics Lucretia has. Including her staff. I’m not letting her keep that.”

“Taako, what about me?” Magnus goes over to him.

“We’re gonna do something very important. Come on.”

Taako leads Magnus into the room behind Lucretia’s office as the other start on their tasks.

“So, what’s back here?”

“Someone you should meet.”

“That’s not cryptic at all.”

“Just shut up for a minute.”

Taako gets them into the room and points Magnus to the tank in the middle of the room. Hesitantly Magnus goes over, and then quickly scoops up the baby Voidfish.

“Taako! Fisher had a baby!”

“Yep, don’t you think we should get the little guy back to Fisher?”

“Yeah, come on!”

Magnus rushes out of the room and Taako follows, holding his hat on.

“Magnus you don’t even know where you’re going!”

“Oh, yeah.”

Magnus stops, making Taako run into him.

“Come on, let’s get the baby back to Fisher.” Taako cuts open a portal to where Fisher was held and follows Magnus through, and then heads over to the tank. “Hey, I brought you someone. Two someone’s.”

Magnus goes over to the tank and smiles.

“Fisher! I missed you buddy! Give me just a sec and I’ll get your baby in there with you.”

Taako watches Magnus climb up the ladder and head to the top of the tank.

“Don’t fall.”

“I’m fine!” Magnus gently puts Junior, as he’d dubbed the new voidfish, in the tank with Fisher. “Here’s your baby!”

The two of them watch as Fisher holds Junior close and sings a happy song.

“That’s one thing down. Now we have to go make sure everything else falls into place so we can stay here.”

“Taako… Why don’t we just leave?”

“Magnus, look at Fisher. He’s as big as the Starblaster. You really wanna leave him behind?”

“No… But I know that’s not your only reasoning. What’s up?”

“I’m tired of running Maggie. I want a home, and this is our best bet. So let’s do what we can to save this plane. Then we can all make a home here.”

“I did that already… I don’t know if I could do it again.”

“Not even with me?” Taako quickly turns around and puts his hands on his face. He hadn’t meant to let that one slip.

“Taako… Hey, look at me.”

Taako moves his hands and then steps back, not expecting Magnus to be right in his face.

“Alright, I’m looking. What do you want?”

“Did you mean that? Be honest with me.”

“Yeah… Of course I did. We’ve known each other for how long now?”

“Taako, that’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

“I think you know the answer to that.”

“No, I don’t think I do. So why don’t you tell me?”

“I’ll show you instead.” Magnus gently pulls Taako close and kisses him. Taako kisses back for a moment and then pulls away.

“I can’t… I can’t do this. You just lost your wife the other day. I’m sorry Magnus.”

“Taako wait, please.”

Taako cuts himself a portal and steps through quickly, then shuts it behind him. He was back in Lucretia’s office where Lup and Merle were dealing with the relics.

“Lup, can I talk to you?”

“Kinda busy here Taako.”

“Lup, this is kinda important. It’ll only take a second.”

“Fine but it better be good.”

Taako makes them a portal to a random place and steps through, then shuts it behind him.

“Ok, so what-”

“Magnuskissedme.”

“What?”

“Magnus… He kissed me.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Did you kiss him back?”

“Of course I did! He’s hot!”

“So why are we here right now?”

“Because he just lost his wife like two days ago! And I like someone else too!”

“So you don’t like Magnus?”

“No, that’s the problem! I still like him!”

“Taako how do you manage to do this to yourself?”

“I have no idea.”

He sits on the ground and puts his head in his hands. Lup sits beside him and wraps an arm around him.

“So what happened to the no pining thing?”

“I’m not pining, I’m just confused at this point.”

“Well who’s the other dude?”

“Um…”

“Come on Koko, spill. Who is he?”

“Kravitz.”

“What?! Taako what is with your taste in guys?!”

“Shut up! You can say nothing to me when your husband looks like Fantasy Tom Arnold and wears jeans to bed!”

“You have a point. But seriously, they couldn’t be more different.”

“I know, but they’re both hot and I don’t know who to choose. I don’t even have time for this nonsense. We’re kinda saving the world here.”

“You always did have the worst timing.”

“No I do not.”

“Then what about all those times-”

“You really think I walked in on you and Barry by accident all those times? Hell half those times it was a dare.”

“Ok, so what now Taako? What are you gonna do?”

“I brought you here so you could help me with that.”

“I think you should go for it.”

“With who?”

“Both of them! Let them both know what’s up and see if they can get along. Then go from there. Who knows, maybe you three will actually be good together.”

“Lup, you’re insane.”

“Love you too Taako.”

“Yeah yeah, now get off me. We’ve got stuff to do.”

Lup rolls her eyes and gets up, cutting them a portal back to Lucretia’s office. Then they get to work on putting what relics they had back together.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Taako makes sure to stay in charge of making groups to send everyone out on missions to go find the other relics so he doesn’t have to be with Magnus. Right now they all needed to focus and make sure that they did this right. Then Taako would worry about who he was kissing. Right now he was going to Wonderland with Lup and Barry. If he was right it was a lich running the place, and part of their job was dealing with liches.

“Are you sure we’re heading in the right direction Taako?”

“Barry you’ve asked me three times, and my answer is still yes. If you wanna go back to the base and ask Lucretia again be my guest, but we’re almost there.”

“How can you tell?”

“I can hear the music.”

“Music?”

“It’ll be a while until you hear it, you’re only human after all.”

“Wow, thanks Taako.”

“You’re welcome.”

Lup groans and pushes the two of them apart.

“You two are so annoying. Why are all three of us on this mission?”

“Because this is kinda part of our job. This is your first one and we’ve been on one. This is easy shit. So let’s go get this lich, get Barry’s bell, and then go add it back to the others.”

“I hate it when you actually sound smart for a change.”

“Love you too nerd.”

Barry makes his way between them before they can start arguing.

“Anyway, why couldn’t we just portal there?”

“If you know the exact location then be my guest Barold.”

“Lucretia didn’t give you an exact location?”

“She got all shaky when she started talking about the place. She just said to go to the Felicity Wildes and wander around until you hear the music.”

“So we’ve just been wandering around this whole time?”

“Did you have a better plan?”

“No…”

“Then shut up. I’m trying to keep listening for the music.”

The three of them walk in silence as they follow the sound of the music, Barry eventually hearing it too. Once they get there Taako looks around a bit. He could definitely feel that the bell was inside, and that there were liches inside as well.

“So how do we do this Taako?”

“Well, we either walk right in and play their games, or we sneak in after some others. Go stealth.”

“I say we just go in guns blazing. What about you Bear?”

“I think stealth would be better. We all saw what happened to Lucretia and heard what she said. You don’t get back what you lose in Wonderland. I’d rather not lose anything important again.”

Lup hugs Barry and kisses his cheek, then looks at Taako. Taako nods and lets his skin melt off, going full reaper mode.

“The billboards are showing some new names, let’s wait for them to show up and then we follow them in.”

“Then what?”

“We follow the lich and kill them. Simple as that.”

Barry sighs and shakes his head, going reaper mode as Lup does.

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

“We’re reapers now, not exactly mortal. Even if we get swept up in their little game, we can get right back out easily.”

“Here comes that group of people.”

Barry casts Invisibility on all of them and they wait patiently for the group to go in, following them silently. They watch the group start on the games. Its not long into it that Taako is nudging them and pointing out the black smoke coming from the players when they said negative things. The three of them follow it out of the room and look at all of the columns around them.

“What is going on here?”

Taako walks around a bit.

“They’re looping. The smoke changes the room but it’s just one room over and over again. They don’t ever get out.”

“Then how did Lucretia get out? How are there stories about this place?” Lup takes Taako’s hand.

“Maybe there’s a game where someone can leave. I’m not sure. For now we’ve got a bell to find.”

Taako lets go of Lup’s hand and looks around. When he finds some stairs he waves the two over. Barry drops the spell as the three of them head up to the top. When they get there Taako calls his book, checking the name.

“Keatz, show yourself. It’s time to give up the game.”

Lup and Barry give him a look he can recognize even if they don’t have any skin at the moment. He doesn’t dignify it with a response though since they both did voices when they were liches.

“Oh, is it now? That’s a shame. I was having so much fun.”

A spotlight comes on, showing a young elf standing not far from them. Taako instantly recognized him, and he knew Barry did too.

“Now isn’t the time for jokes. You’ve committed a long list of crimes and we’re here on behalf of the Raven Queen to stop you.”

“It’s too bad that I’m not going to stop, isn’t it? I’m going to bring back my brother and sister.”

“You’ve chosen the wrong relic if you were planning that.”

“Have I? Well it brought me you three, didn’t it?”

“We don’t have time for these games. Give up or we will have to use force.”

“How are you going to reap what you can’t see?”

The light goes off and they hear Keatz laugh. Taako casts true sight on himself and looks around, spotting the lich. He summons his scythe and walks towards him.

“I gave you your chance. You ruined it.”

With that, Taako swings his scythe and then grabs the soul of Keatz. When he does the bell appears.

Barry walks over and picks up the bell.

“Taako…”

“I’m fine, don’t worry. You two get that back to the base and check on the others. I’m gonna take this to the Stockade.”

Taako cuts himself a portal to the Astral Plane and steps through, then runs right into Kravitz who steadies him quickly.

“There you are. I was going to ask you about this bounty, see if you wanted to do it.”

“If it’s the Keatz one I just did it.” He holds up the soul.

“Oh, well come on. I’ll take you to the Stockade so you can get back to the others.”

Kravitz cuts them a portal to the Stockade and Taako walks through, letting Kravitz show him what to do. Once that’s done Kravitz takes them back to Taako’s office.

“Guess I gotta do the paperwork now. Can you go check on the others for me?”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Can we do this later? Like I’ve got an idea about what you want to talk about, but I want to wait until all of this is over.”

“Yeah… Yeah I can do that. I’ll go check on everyone, be back in a moment.”

Kravitz cuts himself a portal and leaves. Taako sighs and goes into his office, sitting at his desk and starting on the paperwork. Who knew that being a reaper meant he had to do paperwork about every little part of the job. He hadn’t messed around with paperwork since he’d put in his application to the IPRE.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Taako is there when Magnus comes back from Refuge and what he sees makes him go over and comfort the human. Obviously something bad had happened and he needed some kind of comfort. The two of them end up sitting next to Fisher’s tank and watching the two Voidfish swim around each other making happy noises. There were still things to be done, but the others could handle it for a while.

“Taako, why did you walk away after I kissed you?”

“Because now isn’t a good time for that Mags. We both know that.”

“When I married Julia it wasn’t a good time for it, but we were both in love and wanted everyone to know it.”

“Would you have married her that fast if there wasn’t a war going on?”

“I don’t know, I’d like to think so.”

“We’re in a war of our own Magnus. I don’t want to be a rush job that you might regret later in life.”

“Taako…”

“Let’s just wait until this is over. Once it is, then we can talk. Because we have a lot to talk about.”

“Like Kravitz.”

“What do you mean?”

“Taako, I know you like him too. So is he getting the same treatment as me?”

“No, I haven’t really talked to him.”

“You probably should.”

“I’ll do that later.”

“Taako.”

“Later Mags. Once this is all over and we’re all safe. I don’t want to put this on him and then we have to leave. That would be awful.”

“Oh… Yeah, that’s a good point. Ok, I’ll give you that one.”

“You are something else Burnsides.”

“Like you have any room to talk.”

“Never said I did.”

“Then shut up.”

“Make me.”

The two of them pause, looking at each other. Surprisingly, it’s Magnus that looks away.

“We should get back to the others, see where they’re at on finding the Relics.”

“You head on up, I can feel that I’m being called for another job.”

“Reaper stuff? Go figure. I’ll see you later then.”

Taako watches Magnus leave and then gets up, cutting a portal. Or he tries to at least. He tries again, slashing with his scythe. No portal to the Astral Plane appears. So he tries a portal up to Lucretia’s office, still nothing. As he prepares for another swing his scythe disappears from his hands.

“Oh fuck… Mags, wait up!”

Taako runs after Magnus and the two of them take the elevator up, then Taako runs to Lucretia’s office. He finds Merle, Davenport, and Lucretia. Davenport looks up at Taako.

“Taako, what’s wrong?”

“Where are Barry and Lup?”

“They said they were being called for a job so they went to the Astral Plane. Shouldn’t you be going too?”

“I can’t, I’ve been cut off… Did you finish the light?”

“Yes, they’d just brought in the gauntlet.”

“That means the Hunger knows where it is… We’re cut off.”

Taako moves to slump against the wall, but feels a strong body behind him instead. He leans into Magnus and just tries to breathe. Merle gets up and goes over to them.

“No, that’s not possible. Try again.”

“I can’t summon my scythe, ergo, I can’t cut a portal to the Astral Plane. Try casting a spell nature boy.”

Merle tries to cast Zone of Truth, only to feel nothing. He tries again and still gets nothing.

“No… I’ve never been cut off before.”

“Well you are now. So you get Lucretia watching duty while we figure out what to do next.”

Taako stands up and takes a breath, then goes over to Davenport and starts planning with him. Magnus follows him and rubs his back. The three of them keep the light on the table as they plan, talking over ideas and shooting every one of them down. Finally Taako looks at Lucretia.

“So, what was your amazing plan Lucretia?”

“I was going to put a barrier around the plane, keep the Hunger away.”

“So cut us off like its done to us? That wouldn’t have worked.”

“Well it was all I had. Did you ask just to belittle me Taako?”

“Kinda, because you deserve it. But I’ve got a better way to fix this. I’ll cast it around the Hunger instead. If I start now I should have plenty of time for it to work.”

“Taako, let me do that.”

“Hell no. I’m not trusting you with any important part of this plan. If you wanted to fix things then you wouldn’t have made us all forget in the first place.”

“No one else is being hostile to me Taako, what did I do to you specifically?”

“Oh I don’t know, you made me forget my literal twin number one. Do you know how much I hurt every day? I had this pain that I couldn’t make sense of because it gave me static. Number two, you made me forget Magnus. I was going to try and start something once we found Lup. Did you know that? I bet not! Number three, I accidentally killed forty people! Forty people died because you set me up with that cooking show and Sazed! Sazed poisoned the food one time and I fed forty people their deaths! Number four, I tried to bring those people back! Why do you think I’m a reaper Lucretia? Istus of all gods saved my soul. She told the Raven Queen to give me another chance!”

Everyone stares at Taako as he grabs the light and leaves the office. No one knew what to say to any of it. After a moment Davenport nods and looks at Lucretia.

“There’s your answer.”

With that, Magnus leaves to follow after Taako. He didn’t know about a bunch of those things. No one had known because Taako hadn’t said anything. He’d gotten back into the habit of keeping to himself, only without Lup there. So no one knew how to get him to open up about these things.

When he finds Taako, the elf is sitting in what was a partially built quad area. Carefully he walks over and sits down, making sure to make some noise. No need to scare Taako right now.

“Leave me alone.”

“I’m not going to do that Taako.”

“Even if I asked nicely?”

“You don’t know how.”

“Looks like I got out of that one then, natch.”

They stay quiet for a moment, looking at the night sky that was just a bit too dark.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone about that stuff?”

“I didn’t have the time. Between getting you all to remember and getting all the relics together I just didn’t have time.”

“So that back there was what?”

“Me getting it all off of my chest in the worst way possible. I definitely didn’t want to look like a chump in front of Lucretia. I get that I’m just a dumb wizard, but she ruined my life. She ruined everything.”

“Why did we even try the Relic thing in the first place?”

“To try and buy time I think. We’d been at it for a century, we had to stop eventually.”

“Yeah, I was definitely tired of getting a new black eye every cycle.”

“I wish we hadn’t done it Magnus. Things would have been a lot better.”

“How can you say that?”

“Easily, I just did.”

“Taako… I hate that things went the way they did, but I’m glad we stopped here.”

“Good for you.”

Taako gets up and walks off, eventually finding a way off of the moon base and taking it. He needed to just walk without going in a circle for a while.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Taako walks silently, trying to summon his scythe every few minutes. He wasn’t having any luck and the thought made him scared. He was cut off from Lup and Barry again. He was cut off from Kravitz. Why did they have to leave so fast? Why did he have to be so slow about it? If only he had known, and could have warned them. Now though he couldn’t even feel the Raven Queen. He’d been able to feel her ever since he’d become a reaper, but he was just cut off. He was glad that he at least had his magic.

After a while he sits down and looks at the light. He’d kept it with him even now. Probably not the best idea, but he didn’t trust Lucretia around it. She would try to cut them off permanently. Maybe they should find a better way to split the light, but that had only hurt people. Why was every solution so bad? The relics had killed countless people.

“This is hopeless. We’re all gonna die and then it’s over. The Hunger will kill this planar system and if I’m lucky we’ll get out.”

He puts the light in his lap and hums a song that had always made him happy, even though he knew it wouldn’t work this time. Humming Lup and Barry’s duet from the Legato only served to upset him more.

A twig snapping in the distance makes him put the Light away in one of his many pockets and and reach for his shortsword. When he didn’t remember it made him feel safe to have. When he’d been searching for Lup he’d bought another, liking the feeling of safety it gave him even though he knew plenty of magic. He wouldn’t draw the sword though, not yet. For now he just puts his hand on the hilt and keeps humming to himself. If someone was there they would make another noise eventually.

He hears the sound again to his left but he just pulls his wand from his free hand and makes a small fire in front of him. The sudden light should either blind them for a second or scare them off. When he hears a thud he gets up and heads over to the sound, pulling out his sword and pointing it at the lump on the ground. The real moon was dark tonight but with his nightvision he could clearly see someone on the ground.

“Get up, slowly.”

“Please don’t kill me sir!”

Taako points his sword at the ground when he finds a young human boy standing in front of him.

“Kid you shouldn’t be out here at night sneaking around. That’s a good way to get killed.”

“Well, I live here sir. You’re kind of sneaking around in my home.”

The elf looks around as he puts his sword away.

“How old are you kid?”

“I’m six!”

“Well spoken for being six.”

“I’m a fast learner sir.”

“Enough with the sir shit. The names Taako.”

“I’m Angus! ...What are you doing out here Taako sir?”

“Getting away from some idiots.”

Taako sits down in front of the fire and grabs some sticks, breaking them into small pieces and tossing them into the flames. He feels Angus sit next to him and he leans back, humming again.

“Taako… Can you stop doing that? It hurts my head.”

“Stop doing what bubbeleh?”

“That static thing.”

“Static? Oh. Shit that’s right, you wouldn’t be able to hear it. I’m humming a song kid.”

“A song? What kind of song sounds like that?”

“A special one. If you want, I could help you hear it properly.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Taako fishes the flask out of his pocket and checks it, then hands it to Angus.

“Now I know this looks sketchy as fuck, but drink that and you’ll be able to hear it like I do.”

“I shouldn’t take drinks from strangers.”

“It’s not alcohol or anything. It’s sweet even.”

“I don’t know…”

“Just one sip wouldn’t hurt, right? You don’t even have to drink the whole thing. One sip and you’ll hear the song.”

“Ok…”

Taako waits for Angus to have his sip, then he starts humming again. He almost wants to laugh at how wide the kid’s eyes get. He finishes up the song and gets up to grab a few more sticks.

“I’m gonna guess you’ve got some questions. Kids usually have some kind of questions.”

“What was that stuff Taako?”

“It’s called ichor. It came from an animal like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Can… Can I see it?”

“Well Agnes, are you afraid of heights?”

“Um… I don’t know.”

“Well if you come with me you’re gonna find out.”

“Shouldn’t we put out the fire first?”

Taako grabs some dirt and puts it on the fire, effectively putting it out with no smoke. Once that’s done he offers a hand to Agnus.

“Come on pumpkin, don’t want you getting lost.”

Angus takes the hand and Taako leads him back to the transport. He’d figured out the spell for how to call one back easily enough. No way was he gonna wear one of those dumb bracers. Once they get there he helps Angus in first, then gets in himself and casts the spell.

“Where are we going sir?”

“The moon. Now, a bit of warning. My friends are uh… They’re a bit odd. Stay away from the dwarf.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s just someone you shouldn’t be around. He’s not the best with kids.”

“Ok then…”

When they get back Taako gets out and then helps Angus out.

“Welcome to the moon kid.”

“Oh, the fake one.”

“Did you think I would take you to the actual moon?”

“Well… There’s a lot in your story Taako. It was possible.”

Taako chuckles and leads Angus down to Fisher’s tank.

“So did you see the animal that I told you about in my story?”

“Yep. It’s beautiful.”

“Well I’m sure both of them would enjoy that compliment.”

“Both of them?”

Taako nods and takes Angus over to the tank.

“Here’s Fisher, and Junior.”

“Wow… Hello!”

Taako steps back and watches Junior interact with Angus through the glass. The baby voidfish was as big as the human was. It was almost cute in a way.

“So what do you think pumpkin?”

“They’re amazing.”

Angus yawns and sits down to keep watching the two. Taako sits with him and watches as well, just relaxing. When he feels a weight against his side he looks down and smiles a bit. Angus was asleep already. Carefully he moves the boy onto his lap and rubs his back. He could focus on this for now. Angus would be his reason to keep going. Angus was here and alive, that’s all that mattered.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Taako sits with Angus for a few hours before someone finds them. He expects Magnus, but he sees Davenport instead.

“Taako, what are you doing down here? We need you upstairs.”

“Sorry Dav, I was busy with something important.”

Taako gets up, holding Angus close. He feels the boy sleepily loop his little arms around his neck.

“Taako what the fuck?!”

“Hey, keep it down. He's sleeping.”

“Taako, you can't just steal a child because you're lonely.”

“Can and did. Besides, it's not stealing if he doesn't belong to anybody.”

“What? Well where did he come from?”

“I found him in the woods. He said he lived there.”

“Well…”

“Davenport, he's practically skin and bones. He'll starve out there.”

“Fine, but after this is over he's going to an orphanage.”

“Davenport we're not on the ship anymore. If this all ends well I'll decide what to do with him.”

“Taako-”

“No. This is my call. Now let's get back to the others.”

Taako heads to the elevator and rubs Angus's back, humming the same song as before. Once the three of them get up top Taako casts Silence around Angus so he wouldn't hear all the talking going on. Of course he's met with stares but he ignores it.

“So have we figured out how we're gonna get Lup and Barry out of the Astral Plane?”

Lucretia steps up and puts a disk of blue crystal on the table.

“This is a type of gemstone, that with the right type of magic can be a portal of sorts to the Astral Plane. A big enough crystal could be used to pull Lup and Barry out of there.”

“So have you got a big enough crystal?”

“Not on me, but I have an idea. Entire cities were turned to crystal because of the Phoenix Fire Gauntlet. If you could turn one of those into this type of crystal, then you could pull them out.”

“That's gonna take all of my spell slots to do that. I won't be able to channel the spell to put a bubble around the Hunger.”

“Well… I could do that, if you let me.”

“No, not happening.”

“Taako, you're the best transmutation wizard on the whole plane. You're the only one who can do it.”

“I don't trust you with something this important.”

Davenport looks at Taako. “She's the only one who can do this Taako. You know that.”

“Let me guess, this was decided without me. Well fine. But if this goes south, I know who to blame.”

Taako takes the light out of his pocket and puts it on the desk, then snatches up the crystal and leaves the office. He drops the silence spell around Angus and goes to find a quiet place to sit. He finds an unoccupied room and locks the door behind him, sitting on the couch.

“Taako? What's wrong sir?”

“Nothing you need to worry about bubbeleh. Go on back to sleep.”

“Are you sure? You seem upset.”

“I'll be alright. Now get some sleep, we've got a busy day tomorrow.”

“What about you?”

“Elves don't need to sleep. I'm gonna meditate for a while.”

“Alright… Good night sir.”

“Night Agnes.”

Angus moves over to a nearby bed and curls up on it. Taako takes off a couple of his layers, putting them over Angus.

“Taako… Can you hum that song again?”

“Sure thing Pumpkin.”

Taako hums the song Lup and Barry made, watching Angus fall asleep. After the boy is asleep he gets comfortable and starts meditating for the night. That lasts all of ten minutes, then he's climbing into bed with Angus. He holds the boy close and falls asleep.

Once morning comes Taako gets up and checks the kitchen. He finds some food and starts cooking something for the both of them. He's tempted to hold back on his magic, remembering Glamour Springs, but he uses his magic anyway. That wasn't his fault. That was Sazed.

The feeling of small arms wrapping around him snaps him out of his thoughts. With a smile he reaches back and ruffles the boys hair, then gets back to cooking.

“What are you making?”

“Something my sister and I would make when we knew we had a big day ahead of us.”

“Are we going to have a big day today?”

“Yep, a very big day. So I want you to stay close to me today, you got that.”

“I will.”

“Good, now go sit. Breakfast is just about done.”

Taako brings a couple of breakfast burritos over to the table and sits down to start eating. He sees Angus give the meal a once over before digging in. Before he can do the same there’s a knock on the door.

“You keep eating bubbeleh, I’ll deal with this.”

He gets up and goes to the door, unlocking it and opening it only a bit. When he sees Magnus on the other side he opens it more and sighs.

“Hey Taako… Got room for one more?”

“Yeah, go sit. I’ll make a couple more burritos.”

“Breakfast burritos? Haven’t had those in a while.”

Taako heads to the kitchen and Magnus follows, taking a seat and picking up Taako’s to start eating it. Taako looks over at the two and notices Angus is done, so he makes an extra one just to be safe.

“You still hungry pumpkin? I made a couple extra.”

“No…”

“Well if you change your mind it’s right here.”

Taako puts them on the table and picks up one, starting to eat. Magnus grabs another and starts eating too. When Magnus goes to reach for another Taako kicks him under the table.

“Ow, what was that for?”

“You’ve had plenty. You’ve got a lot to do today and you don’t need to be throwing up all over the place.”

“Oh… Good point.”

Taako finishes up and uses Mage Hand to take the plates to the sink and start washing them. Then he goes to grab the clothes he’d taken off to use as a blanket, putting them back on. Once that’s done he starts taking inventory of his spell components. Magnus sits with him and they talk quietly about some things. As they talk Taako notices Angus grab the extra burrito and scarf it down, then he joins them.

“Alright Angus, let’s get going. We’ve got a lot to be doing today and not a lot of time to be doing it.”

“Ok.”

Angus takes Taako’s hand and the two of them start to leave, but Magnus stops them. He gives Taako a quick kiss and then hugs him.

“Be safe.”

“I should be telling you that. You’re the one going up in the air again. I get to stay on the ground.”

“Exactly.”

With that Magnus leaves. Taako sighs and follows after him since they had to go that way. Angus watches Taako for a bit before deciding to ask a couple questions.

“Are you dating him Taako?”

“No, but if everything goes well I might be.”

“Why wouldn’t it go well?”

“Think about my story kid, why did we always have to leave?”

“The Hunger.”

“Yeah, so what’s it look like when its coming? What’s the signs?”

“Um… Everything gets less vibrant, and the sky gets very dark.”

They get to the quad and Taako turns Angus towards the edge.

“What’s it look like out there kid?”

“Like the world is gonna end.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Once the two of them get down to one of the ruined cities Taako looks up at the sky. He knew what was coming and a big part of him wanted to be on the Starblaster. That way if they had to leave at least Angus wouldn’t have to see him disappear. But he was here on the ground and he would put his all into saving this place.

“Taako, what are we doing here?”

“Well Agnes, I’m gonna change this crystal from black to blue. Then I’ll be able to get to the Astral Plane.”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“So we can win this. So stand back, ok? I don’t want you getting caught up in my magic.”

Angus takes a few steps back and sits on the ground, looking around. Taako kneels down and starts channeling his spells into making the stone change. His first try is a failure, and he ends up laying on his back with Angus looking down at him. After some reassurance he gets up and tries again, doing even worse. When he wakes up that time, what he sees makes him grab Angus and hold him close. He needed to do this in one more try or they could be killed.

“Taako… I’m scared.”

“Well I’ll be honest with you, I’m pretty scared too. You shouldn’t have to be seeing this kind of stuff. So I’m gonna keep trying until I get this.”

“What if you don’t do it in time?”

“I will do this. I need you to trust me on that, alright?”

“I trust you. Just please hurry.”

Taako lets go of Angus and gets up, moving to his spot in front of the circle. He closes his eyes and starts pushing as hard as he can, feeling like he was physically moving the wave of blue all the way to the center. When he starts feeling tired he feels Angus hug him from behind, holding on tightly. So he keeps pushing until he feels the wave moving on its own all the way to the center.

“Angus, we did it! Now let’s go get our reinforcements!”

Taako gets up and picks up Angus, running to the middle of the circle and activating the magic of the crystal. As he gets to the middle he sees three forms appear, and he runs right to Kravitz. Without any hesitation he kisses him and then pulls back just as fast.

“Um… That was-”

“You can be embarrassed later bone man. Right now we’ve got to stop the end of the world.” Taako looks over at Lup and Barry. “You two need to get up to the Starblaster and help the others. I’ve got one more thing I need to do.”

Barry and Lup give Taako a quick hug, then make a portal up to the Starblaster to go lend their help. Kravitz puts a hand on Taako’s arm.

“Thank you. You really saved us, you have no idea.”

“I don’t, but you can tell me about it later. Also, we have to have a big talk later. For now, let’s save the world.”

Kravitz nods and calls Legion forward to help fight. Taako summons his scythe and cuts a portal back to Fisher’s tank.

“Alright Angus, I have to put you down for a bit. This is gonna take two hands.” Taako reaches up high and cuts a big portal, one he hopes is big enough for Fisher to go through. “Fisher, everyone needs to hear our story. They need to know so they can defend themselves. Think you can do that?”

He watches the two Voidfish start to sing, creating a light inside themselves; one blue and one green. Angus hugs Taako as the two of them watch them leave through the portal and go spread the story over the whole plane as well as other planes. Once they’re gone Taako closes the portal and carefully gets on Angus’s level. He hated what he was about to do but it needed to be done.

“Angus, I’ve gotta do something important. Important and dangerous. I need you to go somewhere so you can be safe.”

“No! You said to stay close, so I am! I’m not going anywhere!”

“Angus I don’t want you getting hurt. So I’m going to take you somewhere safe. It’ll only be for a little while. I promise.”

“No! Taako please don’t leave me! I want to stay with you!”

Taako cuts a portal to the Astral Plane and pushes Angus through, then closes it quickly before he can come back. Then he quickly cuts a portal to the deck of the Starblaster and heads through. He was out of spell slots, but he still had his scythe and his sword to fight with. He was going to help even if it meant they wouldn’t win. They would win though, he was going to win or die trying. If that was even possible anymore.

“Taako!”

“Lup!”

Taako runs over to his sister and hugs her, then faces the human who had become the Hunger.

“Where’s the kid?”

“Safe, that’s all that matters. Now let's waste this guy.”

The five of them that would be fighting line up together, keeping themselves between the Hunger and Lucretia. She needed to keep channeling the spell so they could win this for good. As they fight, slowly but surely all of them fall. As they do they see someone else come and help them back up. Someone that meant safety to the five of them.

For Taako, Lup, and Barry they see the Raven Queen holding a small boy who waves to them even though he has tears in his eyes.

For Merle he sees Pan smiling at him.

For Magnus, he sees the Power Bear.

As the five of them get up, they feel better, completely revitalized. All of their spell slots were back if they had them. This was the start of round two, the true start to the end.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

As the second part of the fight starts on the Starblaster, Kravitz was on the ground. He was going to protect the innocent lives that he could today. He was a reaper of the Raven Queen, and she loved life as much as death. He was supposed to protect the natural flow of life and this was definitely not natural. When he’d heard the song and seen all of Taako’s story it just made him that much more determined.

While he fights he feels the strength of a god behind him, helping with every swing of his scythe. He could feel his goddess again and that thought made him happy. He hadn’t lost her after all.

The Raven Queen stays in the Astral Plane, talking with the other gods and comforting the small boy that had been given to her for protection. He wasn’t scared of her, and that made her happy. He was upset though, but she knew how to deal with that.

When the song comes through she hums along with it, comforting the child as best she can.

‘I know you are upset little one, but Taako was doing the one thing he felt he’d failed at before. He was protecting you when he couldn’t protect the rest of his family. You are precious to him.’

“I wanted to help. Just because I’m a kid that doesn’t mean I can’t help.”

‘You are very right, but this is a scary thing going on. This could very well be the end of the world for us. If it was, I’m sure he would come right back to be with you until the end.’

“That won’t happen. Taako won’t let it happen.”

‘He may not have a choice in this, it is all up to Fate now. So why don’t you go ask Istus what she thinks about all this?’

Angus looks around at all the gods and gently moves through them, going over to Istus. He sits next to her and watches her work.

‘Yes Angus?’

“Can you tell the future?”

‘Well, I suppose. I’m really not supposed to though.’

“I just want to know one thing. I won’t make it big.”

‘Then ask away.’

“Am I going to be happy once all of this is over?”

Istus pauses in her knitting and gently puts it down, looking at Angus.

‘Yes, you are going to be so happy. Happier than you’ve ever been.’

“Thank you Lady Istus.”

Istus nods and ruffles Angus’ hair, subtly giving him a blessing of Fate. Then she gets back to her knitting. Angus sits with her a while longer before getting up and taking a look at all the other gods around. There were quite a few. He knew some of them, but others were a mystery. Once he’s done he goes back to the Raven Queen and sits with her.

‘So, did you get your answer?’

“Yep, so I’ve got nothing to worry about.”

The Raven Queen laughs in her own sort of way and pats Angus’ head. Angus relaxes and waits patiently, watching the other gods mingle and discuss things. It was interesting to watch them all.

After a while he gets tired and leans on the Raven Queen, slowly falling asleep. Today had been a long day for him and he was only six. Maybe when this was over he could ask Taako for some food if he wasn’t too tired.

After Angus is asleep the Raven Queen picks him up and goes over to Istus, sitting with her and talking quietly.

‘No fear in that one I see.’

‘Oh no, he has fear. But your words were enough to calm him.’

‘He’s a very smart boy. Who did you say brought him here for protection?’

‘Taako did, one of my newest reapers.’

‘Oh yes, that’s right. I see a bright future for him and Angus here. They will have a happy life together, even if it will seem criminally short to Taako.’

‘Well then I will have to offer Angus a job.’

‘Or maybe I will. A bright mind like that could be of use to me.’

‘How about we let him decide when it’s time? No cheating and changing things Istus. I mean it.’

‘Oh you’re no fun.’

‘It’s cheating, and you know how I feel about that.’

‘I thought I was your exception.’

‘Not when it comes to this. I’d like to have a fair chance after all.’

‘Alright, I won’t cheat.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Don’t thank me yet. I believe someone is listening in.’

The Raven Queen looks down at Angus, catching him peeking at her.

‘Angus, were you faking?’

“Yes… I was curious about how you would act if you thought if I was asleep.”

‘I like this one.’

The Raven Queen gives Istus a look and then looks at Angus.

‘Well I suppose that’s alright.’

“Don’t worry, I’ll think about both offers and give you my answer when it’s my time.”

‘That's all we can ask for then.’

Angus nods and closes his eyes. After a while he's sound asleep even though he knows there is a battle going on elsewhere. He was just a little boy at the end of the world. No one could blame him.

He stays asleep until a comforting presence lifts him up and hands him to someone who was cold. Someone who was familiar in a way. So he pushes himself awake and looks up at whoever it was.

“Hello Angus, are you alright?”

“Yes sir, I'm alright.”

Angus smiles up at Kravitz. This was definitely someone he trusted.

“That's good. I just wanted to come check on you since Taako is still fighting.”

His smile drops.

“The fight isn't over?”

“No, not yet. On the ground it is, but Taako and his crew are still fighting on their ship. They should be fine, but I'm worried.”

“Me too sir. I want Taako to be safe. I miss him already.”

“Well if I know Taako, everything is going to be just fine. He and his team have been doing this for a long time. If anyone can win this they can.”

“I hope so.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Taako grabbed onto Lup as he watched what he hoped was the end of the Hunger. It was hard to tell right away, but even if it ended then and there he wanted to be with Lup. He feels Lup turn and pull him into a tight hug, so he just shuts his eyes and hopes for the best. When nothing happens after a few minutes he lifts his head and looks around. Everything was vibrant once again, they’d won.

Taako grins and holds onto Lup tighter, lifting her up and spinning her. She laughs and holds onto him. When he lets go he chuckles as he sees Barry pick her up to spin her again. Then he looks over to Magnus. Without any hesitation Magnus rushes over and picks up Taako, kissing him and spinning him. When Magnus sets him down he cuts a portal to the Astral Plane and smiles when he sees Kravitz holding Angus.

“Taako!”

“Ango!”

Taako catches Angus as he squirms out of Kravitz’s grip and holds him close, rubbing his back and comforting him.

“I was so scared b-but I talked to Istus so I knew you were gonna be ok but-!”

“Hey, it’s ok. Breathe pumpkin. I’m safe, you’re safe, we’re all safe. We won.”

Angus nods and holds onto Taako, crying and smiling. Magnus looks at Angus.

“Hold on, did he say he talked to Istus?”

“Yeah Maggie, what did you think he said?”

“Well it’s not every day I hear a little boy say he talked to a god Taako.”

“I talked to the Raven Queen too. They’re both really nice.”

“Taako where the hell did you pick up this kid? Like, you managed to find a kid that’s our brand of weird.”

“Just got lucky I guess.” Taako looks at Magnus and then Kravitz. “Ok, the three of us have some talking to do. So let’s go do that before I change my mind.”

He cuts a portal to his office and heads through, letting the other two follow him. He sits in the chair and rubs Angus’ back.

“Taako, I’m not sleepy sir.”

“Of course you’re not bubbeleh, I believe you.”

Angus nods and yawns, nuzzling close to Taako. Taako makes a cloak as part of his clothes and takes it off, wrapping it around Angus. Once the boy is asleep he looks up at the other two. Magnus sits on the desk.

“So, what’s up Taako?”

“Well I don’t know if either of you have realized it, but I’ve been kissing the both of you because I wasn’t sure which one of you I wanted. I still can’t really choose. But hey, why choose if I can both?”

Magnus and Kravitz look at each other and then at Taako. Kravitz leans on the desk.

“Well this is… This is an interesting development to say the least.”

“Taako I wish you’d told me. I would’ve backed off a little.”

“Yeah yeah. Also, I’m part of a package deal now. If you want this to work you’ve gotta put in the effort with Angus too. I’m not gonna let this be a thing if you just ignore him all the time.”

“Well I see no problem with that at all. Angus is a very nice boy and I’d like to be there for him if this works out.”

“Taako that just makes this a lot cuter. The three of us being dads for little Ango.”

“So… You’re both in on this then? Because you’ve gotta like each other too. That’s another important bit.”

Kravitz and Magnus look at each other for a moment and nod, then look back at Taako. Taako smiles and carefully gets up.

“Alright, then let’s head back before everyone gets all worried.”

“I’ll get this one Taako, since you have your hands full.”

Kravitz cuts them a portal and the four of them go through, immediately being rushed by Lup who stops at the sight of Angus.

“Uh… Ko?”

“He’s with me, I promise. I found him just before all this went down.”

“Taako you can’t just steal a baby.”

“Hey, he was in the woods alone. I didn’t steal him if there’s no one looking for him.”

“You don’t know that for sure.”

“Well too bad. He’s mine now. So either be happy or back off.”

“Oh wow, dad mode already.”

“Shut up Lup. Like you’re not excited to be an aunt.”

“Of course I am. Now give him here.”

“No, he’s staying right here until he wakes up.”

“Koko come on. I wanna hold him.”

“Nope, you gotta wait just like everybody else.”

Lup groans loudly and leans on Taako’s shoulder. Taako rolls his eyes but doesn’t bother to move her. He wanted to be close to her anyway. He’d missed her quite a bit. After a few minutes Taako heads around to the others, talking and receiving hugs. He couldn’t quite give them back but he tried. After a while he portals himself back to the room he’d found on the base and goes over to the bed, laying down with Angus.

“Taako..?”

“I’m still here pumpkin. Just laying down. It’s been a long day.”

“So did it work out?”

“Did what work out?”

“You, mister Kravitz and mister Magnus.”

“Agnes you don’t need to add that mister bit. Also yes, it did. I also made sure they knew you were part of this deal. So no need to worry about that.”

Angus nods and holds onto Taako.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Now, le’ts get some sleep. Then you can tell me about talking to Istus.”

The two of them get comfortable and fall asleep easily. After a while Kravitz portals in with Magnus. Magnus climbs onto the bed behind Taako and pulls the two close. Kravitz watches them for a moment before climbing in on the other side of Angus, making sure he was wrapped up in a blanket so he wouldn’t get cold. Together the four of them sleep easy, knowing that they were safe. Nothing would tear their little family apart.