"Letters from the Front"

Chapter 8

Authors Note: I finally finished it. After a long time of deliberating and going back and forth and system failures (hard drive with all my stories crashed and burned just before the cpu went kaputz) I am posting the final chapter of Letters from the Front. I hope you enjoy it!

Dear Molly,

I don't know if you remember me, but we've met before. My name is Anastasia Luccio and I'm serving as the Captain of the Wardens.

Harry asked me to write this letter to you in case he couldn't. It's important for you to know that Harry fought valiantly to protect his friends and comrades in this war. It's also important for you to know that he saved many lived and stopped a menace from tearing not only this area but possibly this hemisphere to shreds.

Being his apprentice I'm sure you know how Harry is and that he would never simply lay down and let evil take its course. This battle was no different in that respect. Also, I'm sure you know that Harry tends to pick the biggest, meanest opponent in a fight...

... / ... / ... / ... / ... / ...

My eyes were filled with bright pin pricks of light, sparks from the spell and the simple pressure that had crushed into my body forcing me through the long sealed doors and wards making my vision blurry and spotty. We hadn't even stopped sliding as the vampire raised his fist and aimed it at my face. Even with his speed to his advantage, my staff was pressed into his stomach and the pain screaming in my body flooded into the staff.

"Die Wizard!" the vampire screamed as I whispered, "Forzare". Vampires are fast but spells at point blank range are instant. His fist moved as a blur as my spell lifted him and threw him up and over me, driving him head first into a wall, his body pressed flat into the wall, upside down, as he fell.

I heard the thump and rustling of clothes as he hit the ground, but it seemed to take longer than I had expected. At the same time my body was filled with pain, adrenaline and pretty much in the middle of the fight or flight reflex as I tried to right myself and turn to face his retaliation. I was able to sit up and start to turn when the pain in my side screamed at my brain with white hot agony, forcing me to stop momentarily.

I heard scurrying of fast echoing footsteps moving away from me and the smooth voice of the designer vampire, "This is far from over Wizard."

In that instant I knew I'd failed. He got past me. I wasn't his goal only a road bump between him and his goal somewhere in the bottom of the temple. Rage burned through my body as my hands tightened on my blasting rod and staff making my knuckles turn white and making the outline of the scars on my hand nearly glow in contrast to the color of other skin on my hand.

I tried to push myself up to my feet but the lose rib and other cracked ones, along with something in my back all protested at once sending a crippling amount of pain through my body. As I lay there feeling my hot sweat against the cold stone floor I tried using every pain diminishing technique I knew and still could barely use my left arm. Using sheer force of will and biting my lip till it bled, I was able to get to my feet and lumber into the darkness where my enemy had disappeared. Each step was forced, pushing through the pain to make my injured body move forward towards a formidable enemy and a nightmare that we couldn't allow into this world. "I could have gone to college, been a doctor or engineer..." I thought to myself as I blindly pushed deeper into the darkness.

I pulled the pentacle necklace from my shirt and pressed some energy into it causing a dim blue light to light my path. I saw a set of stairs ahead of me and on the wall above what would be the lower landing side a streak of fresh black oily blood. That made me smile. As I walked to the stairs and was about to descend I heard a whistle, faint at first but quickly becoming louder. Then I felt as much as heard an explosion that threw me down into the darkness. I was far enough away from the blast that the duster and distance helped me avoid any direct damage but the ten to fifteen foot fall onto the landing knocked the air out of me and made the darkness spin around me as I lost consciousness.

I found myself laying on the floor of my basement, wearing my ceremonial robes.

"Well are you just going to lay there all day Harry?" Bob asked exasperated.

"Bob?" I asked pushing myself easily up to a sitting position. The pain and fatigue was gone. I saw myself inside my circle with Bob and my huge tabby cat Mister sitting on the floor just outside the circle. Misters tail was twitching like it does when he's irritated as he just stared at me with those cat eyes.

"Very good, me Bob, you Harry. Now shall we continue?" He asked, the orange glow in his eye sockets rolling dramatically.

"Continue, with what?" I asked seriously confused.

"Harry really, if you're not going to take this seriously why are you wasting our time?" Bob asked indignantly.

"Don't start with me Bob. I've had a bad day!" I said menacingly.

"You're the one wasting our time." Mister sneered and licked a paw to smooth out his whiskers.

"What are we doing here?" I asked doing a double take at Mister, who gave me a uninterested look as he continued preening.

"Helping you make sense of yourself, really Harry you can be quite dense at times." Bob said.

"I ignore him when he's like this." Mister said casually licking his paws. "It'll come to him."

"Make sense of myself?" I asked indignantly. Just then an eagles feather fell onto my left hand.

"Really hints? Is that even fair?" Bob asked more annoyed.

"Wait, he said to find the reason and purpose..." I said quietly remembering my conversation with Listens-To-Wind as I looked around the room, seeing an ornate sand painting in and around my circle.

"I told you he'd get it eventually. The question is will he get it in time?" Mister asked in a droll tone of voice glancing at Bob.

"My life? I have to make sense of my life before I can move on. That's what he said." I said to myself more than anyone else as I turned the feather in my hand.

"Bravo, the crowd goes wild. He has a clue." Bob said sarcastically. "Now shall we begin?"

"Wait you want to go over my entire life? NOW?" I asked incredulously, remembering the burning temple and disembodied council member trying to imprison a monster with a full bodied vampire on his way to throw a monkey wrench into our plans. "This is the time you choose to put me on This is Your Life?"

"Harry, you're unconscious. It's not like you have anything better to do at the moment." Bob said ironically.

"I'm surprised he's not dead from that last blast." Mister said calmly pawing at his tail that was wrapped around in front of him.

"You never know, let's see how he's doing when he finishes. Internal bleeding may get him before he wakes up. That was a nasty concussion when he hit those gold doors." Bob said in a matter of fact tone to Mister.

"True, I'll give you that one. This will be interesting, he does have a very strong will and has survived worse in the past." Mister said finally giving me some credit.

"Yes but remember he's alone and there are more vampires than wardens at the temple." Bob retorted.

"Don't forget the Patasola, there are a ton of those guys too."

"I'd forgotten about them. Yeah, he's a goner." Bob said his skull shaking sadly.

"Guys, can we focus here!" I nearly yelled at the two.

"This is your gig Harry, we're just here for morale support. We're simply figments of your imagination. Whooo... We're not real.. Whoooo.. We're not really here..." Bob replied doing his ghost impersonation.

"Let's start with your Father." Mister said calmly ignoring Bob and sounding like a first year psychology student.

"He died." I said indignantly. Sneering at Bob.

"Why?" Asked Bob.

"He just did." I said not wanting to talk about the particulars.

"What was the purpose?" Mister asked.

"What purpose. There is no purpose to death. It just happens." I said angrily.

"Not true, but let's try this another way. How did it change your life?" Bob asked as if talking about a math problem to a grade school child.

"It left me sad and alone. I went to an orphanage." I said remembering the poor conditions there.

"There you go, we're making progress. Then what happened?"

"I was adopted." I said remembering the day I left the orphanage, dreaming of a new life with someone who was going to look out for me. Boy did I have that one wrong.

"You weren't the only one adopted though were you?" Mister asked paying attention now.

"No, Elaine was adopted too. He adopted her first, then me. She was my first... Everything..." I said quietly.

"While you two were together what did you learn?" Bob asked coaxingly.

"Magic and things..." I said remembering when we would sneak away together.

"Magic and that pain can be used as a motivator."

"Oh yes, I learned all about pain." I said remembering learning how to manage and control pain with my mind. It was a hard lesson but I tend to use that technique a lot these days.

"And how did that end?" Bob asked quietly.

"Poorly. I killed Justin and burned the place to the ground and lost Elaine as well." I said feeling the pangs of guilt.

"What was the reason for that?"

"He was trying to enthrall us, he already had Elaine. I was fighting for my life, my freedom." I said defensively.

"And what was the purpose of this part of your life?" Mister asked, not really sounding like he cared about the answer.

"I learned magic and that I can only really rely on myself." I said sternly.

"But you were angry correct?"

"Hell yes I was angry. Justin violated our trust, hurt us and tried to bend our minds and powers to his will. Who wouldn't be angry!"

"Why did you kill Elaine?" Mister asked off handedly.

"It was an accident. I never intended to hurt her."

"Did you see her die? Did you watch the lights go out in her eyes?" Mister asked pointedly.

"No. I couldn't even find her body in the debris when it was over." I said feeling anger welling up inside wanting to strangle the cat.

"No body, no crime. You don't even know for sure she died, much less have 'killed' her. If she's dead isn't it because Justin had invaded and scrambled her mind? If she didn't get out of a burning building isn't it in fact his fault and not yours?" Mister pressed sounding nearly interested as he blithely spouted facts and supposition.

"Yes. The fire was an accident too." I said seeing his point. I started the fire while fighting Justin to avoid being turned into some sort of zombie. It's not like I killed her directly. If I hadn't fought Justine we would both be zombies and likely dead by now. The fire was an accident, my spell went out of control. I didn't mean to torch the place.

"Good, good. Now what would have happened if you had found Elaine and saved her?" Mister asked.

"I would have stayed with her and taken care of her, protected her. We'd have been together." I said quietly.

"Instead what happened?"

"I was tried by the white council and put under the doom of Damocles instead of being executed." I said thinking back to that empty warehouse with the wardens ready to take my head.

"Who saved you and why?" Bob asked.

"Wizard McCoy saved me and I'm not sure why. I think because he saw something good in me."

"What did you learn from him?" Mister asked his ears perking up.

"I learned patience and respect, for myself, others and magic. I learned magic isn't always the answer. He taught me to respect magic and what it truly is and how it is to be used. I learned how to be a man and that true courage isn't the absence of fear but doing what's right anyway when you're terrified." I said remembering the lessons with the cantankerous old wizard. He wasn't the warm fuzzy type but he was kind and good to me. He taught me that it's okay to screw up if you can admit it and fix things when you're done.

"Were you still angry when you left his care?" Bob asked.

"Not so much, I was more hopeful."

"So Justin taught you to rely on yourself and that pain, terrible pain is a part of life. Then McCoy gave you hope and confidence to put that pain aside and continue on. He taught you to trust people again but to still rely on yourself?"

"Something like that."

"If you had stayed with Elaine, would you have been safe?"

"No, there were wardens chasing us."

"When they found you and they would have found you both, would you have fought them to protect her?"

"Of course! I loved her."

"Knowing what you do now, do you think you would have won that fight?"

"No, not against Morgan and his men. Not then, I was too young."

"So you would have both fought, most likely to the death. Is that right?"

"Probably."

"So given that, what was the purpose of you going to McCoy?"

"To live and become a better person?" I asked lamely.

"Very good Harry." Bob said sounding almost genuinely excited.

"Do you think that's what Susan saw in you?" Mister asked ironically.

"At first I was just a source for her stories, but later, yes. I think she loved me knowing who I am."

"If she had stayed, since she's half vampire, would you be watching and protecting her as you would have with Elaine?"

"Probably."

"Then you wouldn't be here fighting these vampires and the thing in the bottom of the temple?"

"I don't know, maybe she'd be with me, fighting by my side." I said not happy with this question.

"With all the human blood being spilled? Do you think Capt. Luccio would approve of that? Would you?" Bob asked.

"No." I said knowing he was right.

"So if things had been different you wouldn't be here now would you?" Mister asked now looking at me meaningfully.

"No, probably not."

"Why are you in the temple fighting?" Bob asked his eyes brighter. "Let me rephrase that. Why do you fight at all Harry? What are you fighting for?"

"I fight to protect my friends and the innocents around me. I fight to protect the little guy from the ugly bastards who want to feed on them." I said indignantly.

"Why?"

"Because if I don't who will?"

"I think we're done here." Bob said with a toothy smile to Mister.

"One last thing." Mister said, turning to me again. "What do you fight with?"

"What?"

"We were so close too." Bob said with a sigh, the lights dimming in his eye sockets.

"I fight with my staff, rod, gun and anything else I can get to take the bastards down." I said ignoring Bob.

"Not so literal, when you use magic, what do you use to fight with?" Mister asked calmly.

"My emotions, magic, soulfire and my mind, concentration." I replied.

"But why do you win?"

"Because I don't quit, I refuse to stop until those around me are safe."

"But why do you do that?" Mister asked, his form becoming vague and blurred.

"Because I know I have to. I know I can." I felt a pain in my head and side as the room began to dim quickly turning to pitch black. I could feel the grit of granite against my teeth and the warmth of blood on my cheek.

"Voila. He's got it. Now if he can only figure out what that means..." I heard Bobs voice say becoming distant as it trailed off.

My head ached, my body burned and ached with intense pain as I regained full consciousness. I took a quick inventory of my extremities and found them all there, some worse for wear but all were present and accounted for. I rolled to my back feeling a few bones shifting oddly in the process sending new pain signals to my brain.

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, stuffing the pain and any doubts into a small room in the back of my brain and locked the door.

"I'm here because I'm supposed to be here. I'm here because if I don't do this nobody else will." I told myself feeling the energy beginning to well up inside me, "I'm here to stop this smug monster and his outsider girlfriend." I told myself, pushing the remaining pain and fatigue aside.

"I'm Harry Dresden and I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick ass!" I said sitting up and using my rod to push myself to my feet. "And I'm clean out of bubblegum!"

With that I pushed power into my pentacle amulet and it immediately lit up a bright blue, illuminating a good portion of the room. I quickly found the top of the next flight of stairs and quickly descended deeper into the temple.

I went down multiple flights of stairs with my foot falls and their echo's being the only sound besides the blood rushing in my ears. Finally As I started down another flight of stairs I heard what sounded like voices. I slowed my pace and moved as stealthily as possible clinging to the shadows as I came closer to a dim light and the source of the voices.

As I came to a corner of a large narrow room I saw light pouring from the door. I slide up next to the wall next to the doorway and listened.

"I've just killed a bunch of wizards, what makes me think I won't kill you? I have no intention of keeping this lovely creature confined one more day. You simply need to run away. You didn't help the villagers when we took this village all those years ago. Why protect a deserted city now? What's the point?" The vampire asked smoothly, trying to convince the young shapely woman wearing a peasant's shift.

"I will not allow this creature to roam freely to destroy this land yet again. You simply took the villagers as food, like they would take a deer. You unwisely decimated your food source here but that's not my concern. It was a human affair." She said, her fingers still working on unseen threads of power as she spoke to the vampire. His flesh mask had fallen off him, or maybe he shrugged it off to try to intimidate the ancient guardian, but either way he stood there with his oily black skin glistening in the conjured light.

"What if we promise to not allow him to destroy these lands, only the humans? Can we agree to that?" He asked his gleaming white fangs stark against the tarlike skin of his lips that curled when he talked.

"It's gone too far. You can't possibly control him and I've made a promise to one of these humans that I'd fulfill my duty to keep this creature contained."

"I assure you, we've learned from our mistakes. True when we called to it originally we weren't able to hold it as we thought, but now we have learned how to control it effectively."

"Even with your limited power, your kind will never be able to compel this creature. Don't you see that? The best my kind could do was contain it and we are much older and stronger than your race." The girl asked earnestly.

"Don't flatter yourself crone. We have grown much since our last encounter." He said smugly. "Now stand aside or die."

"If you try to stop me now you will surely kill us both." The woman hissed at the vampire. "I am not afraid of death but you would never do anything to risk your own life. Now be gone and leave me to my work."

"I'm not afraid of this creature and I will not let you stand in my way." The vampire replied and began to circle the room avoiding the wards, letting his claws scrape against the walls as he moved closer to the image of the woman. Her hands moving quickly and expertly as the vampire glared, moving ever closer.

Somehow my head was clear and calm as the vampire stared at the young woman, moving slowly closer toward her and me as it circled the room. It's attention was only on the creature trying to restore the wards. I pushed power into my shield bracelet and staff, readying them for the fight to come.

I began breathing deeply and slowly, being as quiet as possible as the vampire reached the doorway I was hiding at, as his back reached the center of the door I pivoted on my foot to stand facing his back.

"Do you have any bubblegum?" I asked politely.

The vampires head snapped in my direction as he turned at the hips towards me. His eyes wide with surprise as I brought the tip of my staff up hard under his jaw. "Neither do I." I said, pushing hard on the top of the staff, bringing the base up to slam into his jaw again as his head snapped back down. There was a sick crunch as his jaw broke.

I stepped back and then shoved the butt of my staff into his chest with my weight and momentum backing the blow, the vampires shoulder came forward as he was shoved back several feet. A shriek of pain and rage tore from his broken maw as he quickly caught his balance and drew his claws up for a strike.

Having caught him off guard and given him a couple sucker punches in a short amount of time, he was a little dazed and not as fast as he was before. That gave me an edge that I wasn't going to let pass. I poured more power and sheer will into the staff and barked, "Fuego!"

A stream of white hot fire, mixed with a touch of soulfire poured from the butt of my staff catching the vampire square in the chest. His skin broke and curled away from the flames as it quickly caught on fire, pouring black acrid smoke into the doorway. I didn't let up pushing more power into the beam as his claws instinctively flashed out toward me to find only the stream of fire that severed his claws from his hand, setting both on fire. The vampire screeched and flailed it's arms in rage and anger, possibly trying to bludgeon me to death, but more likely instinctively simply trying to strike out at the source of its pain and imminent death. Gouts of black blood were spouting from its chest, ignited by the flames that were starting to engulf its chest and stomach.

The vampires face, twisted in pain and near insanity, it let out an unearthly howl that made my skin crawl and rushed the door where I stood. Ready for this, I called a quarter sphere shield to fill the doorway in front of my and leveled my blasting rod. The vampire impacted the shield hard, nearly collapsing it and giving my wrist a sharp spark and burn as the bracelet struggled to hold the shield.

"Forzare" I barked at the desperate creature and sent a solid fist sized ball of force squarely into its face. The crunch and snap of facial bones being broken filled the room and the vampire was thrown back in a high arc.

"No, you fool!" Screamed the image of Molly standing across the room from me, waving her hands frantically as the burning body hit the floor. Its head and shoulders covered part of the first few circles on impact and then slid to cover even more. Before it stopped moving the top of the head simply vaporized as it touched one of the inner circles. The vampires blood and brain matter burst forth to splatter over other sigils and parts of the wards. Effectively bringing them down all at once.

The ground and temple shook violently as a wave of energy that had been pent up for centuries was released. It knocked me to the ground and into the other room, the nearby wall and shield taking the brunt of the blow. I came to a stop as my back slapped hard into the wall just under the stairway I had come down.

"I am free!" bellowed the outsider, shaking the temple even more as it's voice literally tore through the wall he was facing, blowing a sizeable hole and thousands of pounds of supporting granite blocks into the street next to the temple. The pressure from the sound alone was dizzying and I could feel a trickle of blood flowing from my ears before it was done.

With a swipe of his hand more granite was blown free and the street was showered with fast moving stone and dust anywhere from basketball sized to tiny splinters. Vampires shrieked in pain and the screams of a few wardens could be heard as the wall simply exploded outward. The wardens on the temple quickly moved to the far side and between blasts of gun fire and spells, the quickly scrambled down the temple as it began to collapse in on itself.

"Now, finally I will finish what I started all those years ago!" The outsiders voice boomed as he began to grow. His arms swiping and swatting at the stone of the temple as he grew to nearly twenty feet tall. The stones exploded and the debris was thrown into the air giving a sparkling dust in the moonlight as it marched into the street.

Dazed and quickly rethinking my game plan, I pushed myself to my feet and brushed the dust and debris from my duster. I quickly climbed the stairs to the room above as chunks of rock the size of my head were still falling from the ceiling between me and the opening that Mr. Bug and Ugly hand just created. Upstairs the far wall and surrounding floor hand gaping holes above where the outsider had created his own exit. The wall and floors near there were still holding but only just. Dust and debris were falling from the ceiling on this level, threatening to collapse at any moment. So I did what any sane person would do.

I called up a half dome shield around me, using one of my last intact shields and ran like a mad man for the far side. I almost made it to the hole when the floor about ten feet from the hole began to crumble. I pushed off with all my might and the force of my jump just before my foot left the floor, broke the section of floor sending it smashing into the ground some twenty feet below. My shield spell is good for stopping things from landing on me, but doesn't do much for helping me land when I'm falling. I found myself in mid air above a jagged pile of shattered rocks and falling fast when my momentum gave out. In the game I play with the alphas they have a handy spell called, 'falling leaf' that allowed you to slowly drift down to the ground like a leaf on the wind. I had always meant to research that spell for real life situations, like this, but it was still on my to-do list. I think it's right above, 'stop procrastinating'.

So like a grown wizard, I clamped my eyes shut and curled up into a ball and was about to scream like a little girl when I felt myself slow, considerably. I felt like I was sitting on a cloud. I opened my eyes and saw that I was drifting slowly at about a forty-five degree angle toward the ground behind and away from the outsider.

"Now your world will feel the true wrath of an outsider!" bellowed the creature, the force of his voice toppling broken walls and snapping branches and small trees over a hundred feet away. The group of mostly vampires in front of him were holding their ears, well they pressed their claws over the holes they have that pass for ears at any rate. The few wardens were either passed out or in a fetal position trying to stuff the fringe of their cloaks into their ears.

"Children of darkness, you alone came to free me. Bow down to your new master and you shall be spared." his voice boomed into the night. Nearly every vampire dropped to their bellies before the beast. Those that were lost to blood lust were devouring fallen bodies or licking from the pools of blood that had formed around the fallen wardens in the stone buildings. Disgusted at their site the monster waved his hand and those left standing exploded in balls of red flame, their bodies consumed by the flame before the pieces reached the ground.

The groups of wardens had slowly began to move together with the exception of a few deserters who had made a beeline for the safety of the woods. I wasn't surprised to Henderson's red hair and gray senior wardens cloak disappear into the bushes just before my feet touched solid ground lightly. In a cold, calculated way I understood what he was doing. Living to fight another day seems like a good idea sometimes. What turned my stomach was that he was willing to leave so many of his comrades in harm's way as he beat a hasty retreat. I guess he considered us as collateral damage or acceptable losses.

Somewhere in the back of my mind a voice rang into my head, "Why are you here?" it asked calmly. Without hesitation I answered it back just as clearly, "I'm supposed to be here to protect my friends." As that thought reverberated in my head I felt a new rush of vitality and energy rush into my body. It may have been all in my head but my body stopped hurting and I felt myself stand up taller than before. I saw the monster turning to face my comrades.

"You were here to help my captors. Who among you will die first..." It mused with a toothy evil grin.

"Why don't you start with me you bloated ego-maniac?" I shouted stepping into the street.

"You?" It sneered looking at me. "You are the one who set me free. I was thinking of sparing you to be my fool." He said facing me squarely.

"I'm nobody's fool." I said coldly.

"Then you meant to free me?" He asked chuckling, the weight of his voice made the ground vibrate under my feet.

"Let's say it was an unforeseen consequence of dispatching your liberator." I said hoping nobody would guess what that meant, but judging by Anna and Shilpa's faces, they got it. Both were shaking their heads but at least Shilpa was kind enough to drop her head and let her hair cover her eyes.

"Are you really so stupid as to face me alone?" He roared with laughter, tearing the tops from trees with the force of his voice as he threw his head back.

"Funny I was about to ask you the same thing!" I snarled back, mostly because, "Stupid is as stupid does." didn't seem to fit the situation.

"Well then my tiny foe, let's see what you've got." he said leveling the full weight of his gaze on me. It felt something between being pressed in a hydraulic press and being hit by a really big truck. The odd thing is it wasn't a physical pain but more having his intention and focus on my carried a considerable psychic weight. It was like his essence could not be contained in the mortal albeit huge body he inhabited. That's when an idea hit me. I'm not sure if the memory was his or mine but I remember seeing the intricate circles on the floor around him, at the time I could only make out about half of what was there but now for some reason I understood them the more I concentrated on them.

"Fine, give me a second." I said and started drawing a few circles in the ground.

"I am immortal you putrid scum, take all the time you want." he roared honestly amused that such a tiny gnat of a creature would stand up to him.

"Since you have the upper hand, do you mind if I start first?" I asked offhandedly, glancing at the towering being who had only a millennia or so ago had laid waste to most of this region.

"Behold my worthy foe!" He stretched his hands towards me and roared with laughter, "You may have the first blow. I look forward to your attack." He said, nearly doubling over with laughter.

My staff was moving fast and furiously as I moved around the circle checking each rune and sigil as I scratched them into the ground adding a few new runes and sigils of my own as I went. Finally I had finished and stepped into the circle and activated the inner circle. I sat down cross legged in the circle and closed my eyes and concentrated. Soon I could feel the thrum of magic in the circle as my mind and intention twined it like ropes, binding it and condensing it more and more as I continued to pull yet more power that was still draining from the ancient containment area only a few yards away.

"Captain Luccio?" Shilpa whispered softly, "Has Harry gone mad?"

"Normally I'd say yes," Luccio whispered in reply as a warm smile spread across her lips, "But I've seen that look in his eyes before. I don't know what he has planned but this should be good." Luccio told her. Then turning with a concerned look on her face she tapped the wardens closest to her on the shoulder. "We should find cover..." she said in earnest. With that the other wardens spread the word and the wardens began to inch farther down the street into the darkness of the night and behind big trees or sturdy walls as the outsiders attention was focused upon Harry.

"Here we go." I said to myself as I opened my eyes and broke the first circle, sending a huge amount of energy condensed into one intention, entering his mind. Since his essence radiated from his body, I had considered his mind may also be as vast and barely contained. I wasn't far from the truth. Although I had no hope of controlling this being or dominating his mind, that wasn't my intention. His mind was at least as huge and powerful as I had imagined, knowing what I was looking for seemed to help a lot as images and memories started to pour into my head as I sifted through time without end of memories. What I needed was in some of what it would consider the most recent.

The outsider was dazed for a moment, and only a moment. Shocked that I would dare enter his mind I felt him drawing power for an attack that would pop my head like a twelve volt light bulb put into a regular light socket. One of the beauties and fatal flaws of psychic attack is they are usually nearly instant. I was lucky and was able to invoke my second circle as he blasted at me with the pure energy of his being. He had no need to draw power from his surroundings as he was nearly pure energy himself simply encased in a corporal form.

The second circle quickly and efficiently turned his energy into magic, strong magic that swirled and poured into me. Drawing from his memories I began speaking in a language I don't know. I simply held the images of the runes and sigils in my head and my mouth translated. With each ancient word a gold sigil would appear around, above or below him. He screamed in rage trying to destroy me and my tiny circles but only added more and more power to do my bidding. As the images flowed through my brain my mouth began to speak faster in the guttural language that human vocal cords could hardly do justice to. The images of the path he took to enter our world was made clear to me as was the path for him to exit. I was speaking the words of the exit path tied to his being through his own power that flowed around me. I saw time and space without end, I saw universes swirling in a void of infinite power and the beings who called that place home. Beings of intellect and ego the likes of which our universe could barely hold without splitting at the seams. I saw the perfection of the universe and beyond, for a brief moment I could see everything in perfect focus, how every piece fit exactly into place. Every event in space and time those that happened and those that did not and why. In that moment my mouth uttered the last and final word of the spell that would expel the creature from our world. I vaguely remember a sphere thirty feet in diameter imploding instantly and completely in on itself and the outsider. After that everything sort of went dark.

When I woke I was laying on a feather bed in what at first I assumed was a dark room. Then I noticed that there were stars above me, not the reflection of lights on a ceiling. I tried to pick out a constellation that I recognized but wasn't able to. That was when I felt a presence beside me.

"You truly are an idiot." He said with an odd kindness in his voice. "What were you thinking trying such a bone headed stunt?" The gatekeeper asked in a kind and gentle voice.

It was then my eyes focused on the dark hood and one eye of my companion. His face was mostly hidden beneath the heavy hood, but I could make out a smile and twinkle in his good eye.

"I was thinking it was that or nothing. I had to try to do something to avoid a slaughter of biblical proportions that was to start with my friends." I said honestly.

"Harry, you dispatched the outsider using his own power against him. That was a truly ingenious and incredibly stupid thing to do. I dare say if you hadn't had your mothers talisman and your gift, you would have died." He said gravely.

"Talisman?" I asked clutching the pentagram on my chest.

"Yes, your mother got it from the Fae and at no small price to herself. She got it for you." he said gazing at the silver pentagram. "It holds more than simply sentimental value. You must treasure and protect it."

"You mentioned a gift. What special gift do I have?" I asked.

"Your mind. As crazy as that sounds given your past history. Your mind is special Harry. You were able to look into the eye of creation and it looked back. This would either kill or drive any other person insane, but you embraced it and it embraced you." He said smiling. "I may get to retire after all."

"Wait.. what?" I asked confused and scared at the implication.

"Don't think on it for now Harry. I had to pull a lot of information out of your head in order to get you to wake. What little of the incident I left will take you years to process. We can talk more when you're ready." He said and laid his palm over my eyes as I was swept away by a sea of blackness.

When I woke again I was in Edinburgh, in the infirmary. I was parched and kind of woozy and my eyes didn't want to open.

"Harry?" I heard a familiar voice say.

"Present." I mumbled and tried to raise my hand only to send a series of sharp pains through my head and body.

"He's awake!" the feminine voice said in a lilting accent, calling to one of the nurses on duty.

"Who Dresden?" the nurse asked in a brusque voice. "Let me see." she said bustling to my bedside and leaning over me, pressing on my injured arm in the process.

"Easy on the goods." I gasped my throat as dry as the Sahara desert. I tried in vain to sit up, only to be gently pushed back down onto the bed.

"Down boy. I'll get you some water, you just lay back and take it easy." the heavyset nurse said as she stepped back and started taking my vital signs. Then she hurried off somewhere down the hall, where I hoped vaguely that there was a coke machine.

"Harry, how do you feel?" Shilpa asked softly as she took my hand gently into hers.

"Like I played chicken with a freight train and lost." I said trying to smirk. She obviously didn't get the reference but smiled kindly assuming it was a joke.

"What happened back there? My memory is pretty sketchy. Since we're both here I'm guessing something worked." I said trying to remember what happened after I called the thing into the street.

"Well I'm not quite sure. You were drawing circles with a mad look in your eyes and we took cover. There was an explosion and it was gone, along with everything in a 200' radius, except for you still lying in your circle." She said calmly. "Honestly nobody knew what to make of it."

"What about the raid?" I asked.

"Well after this battle they decided that we should wait and research the area a little better before sending another strike team into that part of the jungle." She said with a smile gently shaking her head.

"So everyone made it out okay?" I asked noticing that there were few other beds filled near me.

"Everyone else is just fine." She said smiling brightly.

"Where's Mouse?" I asked not seeing him at my bed side sort of made me feel neglected.

"He's with Captain Luccio. He wouldn't leave your side until she ordered him to wait outside. The nurse in the operating room was throwing an absolute fit and he just ignored her and plopped down at the foot of the bed." She said giggling softly.

"Man's best friend." I said softly with a grin, imagining the scene in my head.

"Harry!" said another familiar voice. I could hear quick foot falls heading towards my bed and could make out Anastasia's form coming down the hallway double time with her cloak and hair flowing behind her. "Shilpa, is he awake?" She asked hurriedly as she approached and pulled the curtain back to look at me from the foot of my bed.

"Yes Captain, I'm awake." I said with a grin, expecting to see relief on her face, instead I only saw a look of dread. "Anna, what's wrong?"

"Um.. You really should call Molly when you feel up to it." She said timidly.

... / ... / ... / ... / ... /...

In short, I regret to inform you that although his brave and courageous actions saved the lives of everyone in his battle group from certain death, Harry has sustained what the doctors are calling severe and irreversible brain damage. He is resting comfortably and is receiving the best care that the white council can provide and making every effort to restore him. Unfortunately the prognosis is bleak at best.

I sorrowfully suggest that you get his affairs and personal effects in order as the damaged done can only be described as severe.

You will be informed when and where the dedication of his memorial will be once it's scheduled.

Sincerely yours,

Capt. Anastasia Luccio