Reunion

Pete wasn't expecting his home reality to be so ... white.

He'd imagined any number of scenes when they finally found this realm: the rolling green hills of Ireland were what he'd been expecting, but not necessarily the Ireland he knew. Perhaps a world where faerie roamed free and the air sang with magic, like it did in the reality they'd just come from - an odd reality where the rulers of Ireland were feudal Japanese lords answerable to a couple of precocious ten-year-old girls who seemed more Scandinavian than Oriental.

He wasn't expecting snow and ice, as far as the eye could see. "Where are we, exactly?"

Logan shrugged, looking about in bewilderment. Pete turned to the young man who'd brought them here. He was dressed in a loose cotton
yabagin
, the marrow-freezing cold not touching him through the magical shield of warmth he had, in fact, woven around the three of them.

Ren's expression was grim as he studied the barren snowscape. "I think it's Hawaii."

"That's a glacier over there."

"Clearly they're not having problems with global warming, then," Logan quipped, flashing his brother a quick grin. "There's magic here, though. I can feel it."

"It's fading," Ren said.

"What do you mean?"

"Magic needs living things to sustain it. This world is dead."

"We don't know that for certain."

"This is the fourth stone circle we've tried, Logan. They've all been the same. No sun, no life, just snow and ice."

"Maybe there are other, warmer places ..."

"We're virtually standing on the Equator. Where do you suppose it's going to be any warmer?"

"What did this?" Pete asked. He directed the question at Ren and it wasn't rhetorical. This was the world from which Delphine had stolen Pete and his twin brother as babies. She had planned to use them as breeding stock for the
Matrarchaí
, while ensuring they were ignorant of their heritage. She thought they would never learn that they were powerful sorcerers in their own right, because they were Undivided. They only lacked the magical tattoo on their palms which would make them capable of sharing their magic with other human sorcerers, as well as wielding it themselves.

Then Ren and Darragh had happened along, and nobody's life had been the same since. Especially now that Ren had
all
of Delphine's memories, so he had the answers the others wanted. Ren had shared some of her surface memories through the
Comhroinn
, but the really meaty stuff that Pete and Logan were interested in was hoarded almost jealously by Ren. He claimed Delphine's memories were too hard to sort out, therefore too hard to isolate and reveal in the
Comhroinn
, the Druid magic mind sharing that was more art than magic.

Pete knew that some things Ren learned from his
Comhroinn
with Delphine were near the surface and so could be easily accessed and shared. Other things were hidden, requiring Ren to delve far deeper. His reluctance to do so annoyed Pete, who believed the answers to all their questions were hidden in Ren's mind. It was selfish of Ren to deny them answers, just because the memories were unwanted and he was afraid of a little bit of a headache.

"Hey, did you hear me?"

Ren was staring off into space. There was a blank look on his face suggesting he was either bored, or lost in the memories he'd accessed to bring them to this place.

"Kavanaugh?" Logan looked at Ren with concern. When Ren didn't answer he turned to Pete. "Is he usually this annoying?"

"Yes," Pete said. He stepped up to Ren and snapped his fingers in front of the young man's face. "Hey! Wizard boy! Snap out of it!"

Ren blinked and fixed his gaze on Pete. "You should be dead."

"Yeah, pity about that. Now why don't you -"

"You should both be dead," Ren said, casting his eyes over Logan as if Pete hadn't spoken. "I cannot permit you to live, knowing what you are. You were never meant to gain this self-knowledge."

"Ren?" Pete said.

"I don't think that's Ren any longer," Logan said, as the air about them suddenly chilled. Ren - or whoever it was - had dropped the warming shield.

"Delphine?" Pete's breath frosted as he asked the question, afraid he already knew the answer. This was what Ren had feared. He wasn't skilled enough to hold back the memories he carried. Pete shivered, and not entirely because of the cold.

"I was prepared to let you live ordinary lives," Ren said, although it was clear the words were not his. This was Delphine, just before she died. Before Ren killed her. The Delphine who was able to justify the murder of two men she had raised as her own sons. "But you just couldn't help poking your nose in where it wasn't needed, could you? I told you I was safe. You should have left it at that."

With the preternatural instincts of identical twins, Pete knew that if he could distract Ren long enough, Logan would be able to get around behind him. Pete didn't know what it would take to shake Delphine loose from Ren's mind, but he was pretty sure that neither he nor Logan understood their newfound magical abilities enough to counter someone as powerful as Ren - souped up as he was with Delphine's centuries of knowledge about how to use that power.

"Who'd have thought some mundane little terrorist attack that had nothing to do with the
Matrarchaí
would interfere with your plans to rule the world?"

Ren raised his hand and Pete started to choke, as if his windpipe was being crushed by an invisible hand. "How dare you mock me? After all I've done for you. And for your information, the
Matrarchaí
has much bigger plans than just ruling one world."

Pete couldn't breathe. He collapsed to his knees, wondering where Logan was. He didn't have much time, he knew, before the memories of Delphine that were possessing Ren crushed the very life out of him.

"Ren ..." he gasped with his last breath, appealing to the young man who owned this power crushing the life from him. Surely Ren could fight back? He wouldn't have surrendered willingly ...

And Logan ... where was Logan?

In answer to his question, he saw his brother fly past him and land heavily against the bole of a dead, snow-covered palm tree. Pete couldn't tell if he was unconscious or dead. He just knew there'd be no help coming from that direction.

If he was going to survive this, he needed to get Ren back. But he was already starting to black out. Desperately, he groped around on the snow-covered ground until his hands closed over the closest thing he had to a weapon. The rock he found was rough and cold. Pete scooped it up and smashed it down onto Ren's foot, the only part of him he could still focus on.

Ren cried out in pain and the pressure eased on Pete's throat. He staggered to his feet and lurched at Ren, driving his fist into his solar plexus with the full weight of his body behind him. They crashed to the ground. Pete landed on top on Ren and raised the rock, ready to crush Ren's skull if that's what it was going to take to shake Delphine loose from his mind.

"No! Pete! It's me!"

Pete hesitated, the rock still raised above his head. He sat astride Ren, who was staring up at him with genuine fear. The arrogance of Delphine was gone.

"How do I know it's you?"

"Delphine wouldn't be talking to you. She'd go back to killing you."

Cautiously, Pete lowered the rock. "Are you sure she's gone?"

Ren nodded.

"What happened?"

"I did what you asked, Pete. I tried to access her memories. Next thing I know, I
was
Delphine. Are you going to let me up?"

"Maybe." Pete glanced across the snow-covered stone circle to where Logan lay, relieved see him groaning as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He turned back to Ren. "Can you stop her doing that again?"

Ren shrugged. "I think so. Darragh knew how to do it. I'd have to lock down her memories, though, and everything she knows will get locked down with it."

"Small price to pay if it means you're not going to go postal on us without warning."

Logan staggered over to them, studying his brother - sitting astride Ren and still clutching the rock - with a puzzled expression. "Is that Ren?"

"For the moment," Pete assured his brother and then turned back to Ren. "Do it."

"Now?"

"You ever want to leave this realm?"

Ren nodded and closed his eyes. Pete could feel him drawing from the faded magic of this world and then, after a few moments, he opened his eyes. "It's done."

"How can we be sure?" Logan asked.

"Because as soon as we get back to the ninja reality, we're going to hand him over to Trása and she can make sure it's done."

"Do you trust Trása to do that?"

"I trust her to want her boyfriend to stay alive," Pete said, climbing to his feet, "because if he goes Delphine on us again, we're going to have to kill him." He reached down and offered Ren his hand. "You okay with that?"

Ren nodded as Pete pulled him to his feet. "You're not staying here, then? This realm is your home."

"What's to stay for?" Logan asked, looking around.

"Besides," Pete said, "Delphine said the
Matrarchaí
has much bigger plans than ruling the world. I think we need to find out what she meant by that."