Chapter 1

The day they came back was a normal day.

The sun rose over the apple tree he'd planted behind the house, setting his cells on fire. He went to school and tried to grapple with A Levels and his job and the future and friends and football and all those things that had somehow seemed less complicated when he was fighting aliens.

He'd run home from school hoping to clear his head of everything. But they all still crowded in, demanding his attention. He'd meant to work a shift at the cafe that afternoon but had cancelled it. They hadn't been angry. The word 'exams' seemed to have a magical quality all of its own.

He still had the address Benny had given it to him several days ago. But, if he was honest, it wasn't just the long haul to East London that was stalling him. Two years was a long time.

He missed Benny's company on the way home even if he made much better time. Benny wasn't just two left feet: he was a brain endlessly distracted by... everything. The street was a minefield and Tom often felt like he was navigating a blind man.

He hadn't Skyped him today. Or yesterday. He was trying not think about the address. And the other thing.

There's something else, Tom, Benny had told him. An anomaly.

What kind of anomaly?

It could be galactic noise. Maybe the CMBR. I'm not sure. Space is louder than people think.

And if it's not?

I don't want to speculate, Tom. But we don't know how long it would take them to get to Nekron and back. They could already be here.

Well if they're already here, Benny, then where are they?

Exactly. If wizards started disappearing again, the Network of Mirrors would go crazy.

Galactic noise. The CMBR? He had no idea what that meant.

The address was in his wallet and the wallet was in his pocket at all times. But maybe it was still too dangerous to use it.

"Tom? Are you alright?"

He started for a moment and realised he was standing outside his front door and had been for the last 5 minutes.

"Sorry, Dad, I was just thinking."

"Well, do you mind thinking inside the house? I have a Pekinese with a stomach problem I need to get back to and I was hoping to have a bite of tea first."

Tom pushed opened the door and walked down the hallway to the kitchen, throwing his crammed backpack on a lounge chair on his way through.

"Wow, a diarrhoetic dog. I can't understand why I didn't want to become a vet."

"Last time I looked you hadn't decided what you wanted to be at all."

"Come on, Dad. I'm doing three A levels aren't I? I can work that other stuff out after a gap year."

"And I think a gap year is a good idea. But there's no point if you don't have a university acceptance first."

"What do you want me to say? I don't know what I want to do. I'm a warrior wizard. It keeps me a little busy."

"You don't have an alien invasion as an excuse anymore, son. And the Line of Twilight has held for 500 years. I think it will hold while the Great Tom Clarke gets an education."

Tom shrugged and was about to commit blasphemy. Maybe I don't want to go to Uni was on the tip of his tongue. But that would open up a can of worms he wasn't prepared to deal with yet. So he was relieved when...

"Michael, leave the boy alone. He's right. If he has some A levels he can look at further education later. For now, let him be."

"Thanks, Gran." He smiled gratefully.

His Dad, moving around the kitchen as he heated a can of soup and made some toast, gave an expression that was half grimace and half distaste.

"It's a competitive world out there. And the last time I looked, magic wasn't going to solve an admissions problem."

"Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Ursula intoned in a serious voice.

They swapped old, well-worn looks - frustration and amusement - and Tom smiled at the familiarity of it.

"Well, I have homework to do and so I'm getting changed and going to the library."

"What about something to eat?" they both said simultaneously.

He grinned at that, "I'll grab something before I go. Now stop worrying, both of you. Everything's going to be fine."

He needed a shower. He was anxious to get out but he needed the warm water and the moment alone. His final year of school was busy, even if he no longer had the threat of magical extraction hanging over his head.

They'd re-enforced the Shroud three times since the Nekross had left. But he still had moments, even after all these years. The pit in his stomach. A sound, a feeling and then the grip of panic. The fingers twitching. Thumb and forefinger. Moments when he was sure they were there. Watching. Waiting.

But they weren't.

The address was still in his wallet. The wallet was still in his uniform, thrown carelessly on the floor of the bathroom.

And what could he say anyway? That he was sorry that his magic had failed so badly. That he'd felt it give away one normal Tuesday afternoon on a normal day just like today. Felt it unclench and spiral away from him, like... he had no words. He just knew it had unravelled.

Magic shouldn't work like that. He hadn't even realised he was still holding the spell together until it had unwound and dissipated like mist. You couldn't catch mist. And he didn't have the magic to get it back.

He never told anyone. Not even Benny. If he did they might start asking questions that he wasn't ready to answer. Like where he was going right now.

He towelled down and ran from the steamy bathroom down the frigid hallway to his room. He put the wallet into his jeans and slipped on a fresh t-shirt and a jacket. It was chilly, even as the year flowed inexorably toward summer. Study. Exams. Freedom. Of a sort anyway.

His phone rang as he slipped out the front door with two fresh toasties in a brown paper bag.

"Ok, I'm off to the library," he yelled to the empty living room as he stepped outside.

He answered the phone, juggling it for a moment as he slipped the warm, greasy bag of sandwiches in his jacket pocket.

"Hey, Katie. Ow!"

"What?"

"Sorry, I just burned my hand on a toastie."

"Well, I guess you're not coming to dinner with us then?"

"Sorry, Katie, I'm stuck at home. Studying. You know what my Dad's like."

"Yeah. Mine too. Still, they should let you out sometimes. You need to decompress."

"Sorry. I just can't."

"That's ok."

There was a silence on the phone and he waited for nearly 30 seconds before saying.

"Alright then, Katie, well I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Listen, Tom, I wanted you to know. I was going to tell you tonight but since you're not going to be there. I kind of have a new boyfriend."

"Seriously? That's amazing."

"Oh, good. I mean, I'm glad. That you're okay with it."

"We broke up two years ago, Katie. Why would I not be okay with it?"

"I don't know. I just wanted to check."

"So what's Don Juan's name anyway?"

"Hart. We met at work. And Don Juan is kind of an insult under the circumstances."

"Oh yeah, good point. But, that's great, Katie. Wait, is he the tall one who was there last time I came in? The really hot one?"

She laughed at that, "Well, I think so."

"For the record, that was Joc. Not me. Something about his amazing skin. And his height. And his eyes. I don't know. She went on about it for, like, an hour."

"It sounds like her."

"What's with the name Heart anyway?"

"It's short for Rahart. It's Arabic. Or maybe Persian. Something like that anyway."

"Ahh. You know, I'm really happy for you, right? Even if we will have to put up with Joc going gaga every time she sees him. And possibly Benny. But he'll do it quietly. Like, on the inside."

"Thanks, Tom. Look, this whole 'studying' thing. It's not just an excuse for you to go and do something magical is it? There's nothing we have to worry about? No vampires? Or aliens?"

He forced a chuckle, "Nothing at all. I honestly just have to stay home and study. Hey, you're not going to mention the whole 'magic' thing to the new boyfriend are you?"

"I've kept your secret this long, Tom. I think I can manage it."

"Thanks, Katie. And say hi to Quinn for me, will you? Bye."

He hung up and paused for a moment before sliding into the driver's seat of his old Corolla. It was a risk, telling his parents one thing and his friends another. But he wouldn't put it past them deciding to 'surprise him' at the library after dinner. Or dropping round his if they didn't find him there.

He put the car into gear and turned into the road toward the High Street. It was the wrong way but he'd just have to double back later.

You know what's weird, Tom. There's a Burnt Hill stone circle in Massachusetts too.

Seriously?

Yeah. Do you think they could be, I don't know, magically linked or something?

What, because they have the same name?

You're the wizard. Names have power. Isn't that what you always say? Maybe it's why they're so powerful. I mean, maybe they're like, connected. Or, I don't know, two parts of the same thing.

Two parts of what thing?

I don't know, Tom. I just thought it was interesting.

So had he when he'd had time to think about it. What were the stones anyway? Where did their magic come from? The Line of Twilight had stood for 500 years but things still got through now and then.

There were Thresholds of Enchantment. He knew that. And Neverways. He knew that better than anybody. The stones were magic but where did that magic come from? Benny had asked him that once and he'd given him a glib answer.

Sometimes things just are.

That's not an answer, Tom.

Well, it's all the answer I've got. Magic isn't science, Benny.

After all these years, he knew Benny was right. 'Because' wasn't an answer. It was the prelude to a question. Anything else was an invitation to accept the status quo. And Tom Clarke did not accept the status quo. If he had, he'd be dead.

It was a short drive to the stones. He turned the radio on and then turned it off again. He hated that song.

Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down

It may as well be the Wizard's theme song. It may as well be his theme song.

He had brought a camping LED lantern with him. He wasn't ready to call upon the stones and he certainly wasn't going to waste his spells creating light. He knew how capricious the stones could be and he could do without one of their bargains. But if what he suspected was true, he didn't need them anyway. It would take all his magic but he'd saved his spells. Darkness had fallen. And tomorrow was a new day.

He'd barely started when the phone rang. It was his Dad so he almost didn't answer it. I'm busy, he thought in frustration. But in his family it wasn't a good idea not to answer a phone. Who knew what had happened.

"Dad," he said cheerfully, hoping the silence of the stones at night would sound like the silence of a library.

"Tom, I know you're studying but you need to get to a computer. Or turn on a TV. And quickly."

"Dad?"

"I'm serious, Tom. Do it now."

"But what...?"

"They're back, Tom. They're back. And they've just outed you."

"Outed me? To who?"

"To everybody, Tom. To the whole damn world."

Author's Note:

I can't believe I'm back writing fan fiction, let alone Wizards vs Aliens fan fiction. But I think this story has been buzzing around my head for far too long and it's distracting me from my "proper" work.

I'm not English so anachronisms will happen. I am open to correction, especially about the education system which is reconstructed from vague childhood memories of teen school books.

Season 3 never happened.

Katie and Tom broke up in Season 2 (as they should have).