And here we are, exactly one year after I posted the first chapter, posting the last. I feel more proud of that accomplishment if the story wasn't only 4 chapters long!

Ah well, it's not like the MTG fanfic scene is booming. Still, I thought I'd finish it. Then maybe I'll work on my other MTG Fanfic. Who knows?

Enjoy!

S&DS&DS&DS&D

"Oh. Great." Chandra groaned, looking at the trapdoor half buried in the burned rubble. "We're going to have to go down there, aren't we?"

Gideon frowned, but didn't answer. They'd moved in a straight line since that whatever it was had tried to attack him, and they were nearing the edge of the rubble-field. The trapdoor was the only thing they'd seen that was suspicious. It had been well hidden, perfectly matching the color of the stone floor around it; if it wasn't slightly ajar and blackened, then Argus likely wouldn't have been able to spot it.

The planeswalker crouched, covering himself in his invulnerable shell before sticking his finger in the cracks. The metal resisted, the rubble on top of it weighing it down, but only for a moment before giving way with a loud screech. Revealing a stone stairway leading farther down, he could make out a few flickering lights farther down but that was about it.

"I repeat, we're gonna have to go down there, aren't we?" Chandra huffed, reaching up and patting the salamander coiled around her neck. "Can't I just, like, flood the place with fire and be done with it?"

"Please don't." Agrus sighed.

"Yeah, yeah." Chandra grumbled. "That would be fire hazard," she scoffed on the last words. "I just don't like cramped spaces."

"I don't care much for them, either." Gideon admitted. "I need plenty of room to really hit someone."

"Should have thought of that before you decided to become a literal mountain of muscle." Chandra snorted.

"I'll take point." Agrus said, floating down into the hole. "If our perps down there, I'll see it first. Gideon, you go behind me. Feather will take up the rear in case something attacks us from behind."

"What? You think I can't handle that?" Chandra demanded.

"No ma'am." The ghostly policeman responded. "Feather and Gideon are relatively fireproof, so if something tries to get the jump on us, they can keep it busy long enough for you to roast it."

"I like it." Gideon nodded, smiling and stepping into the hole. "As you said, Chandra, meat shields should go in front." The pyromancer grumbled but followed him down. The stairway was steep and cramped, but they made fast progress. They quickly reached the lights he had seen flickering in the dark, which appeared to be some kind of lamps glowing with magelight.

They quickly reached a door, blackened and warped slightly out of its frame. Gideon wasted no time prying it open and stepping through into a larger room. It was well lit by a dozen of the magelight lamps. Metal machines and tubes lined the walls, but Gideon barely noticed them, his eyes immediately drawn to the floor.

And the bodies scattered across it.

They were a mix of races; a vedelken, some humans, and more than a few goblins, but they all wore a mix of red and blue. Their faces were twisted in a grimace, and their hands were around their necks, like they'd strangled themselves…or had been trying to pull something off. Gideon could see blackened skin beneath a nearby goblin's fingers.

"Ah." Agrus said sourly. "An Izzet laboratory."

"Thought you said this wasn't one of the guild's doing?" Chandra said.

"I said I thought it wasn't one of the guilds doing the killings on purpose." The ghost snapped back. "Doesn't rule out one of them doing something by accident." He sighed, examining a facedown goblin. "Any idiot can mess with forces beyond their comprehension and make something blow up." Agrus said. "The problem is that the Izzet can comprehend quite a lot, so their accidents tend to take the whole block with them." Agrus shook his head. "I think that about cinches it. We're dealing with some kind of out of control elemental."

"An Izzet trademark." Feather stated. The angel stood at the ready, eyeing the corners of the room as though she expected them to attack. Gideon frowned. Elementals weren't really his thing; he wasn't one to summon something else to do his fighting for him.

"Maybe we should have brought Nissa." Chandra commented, her hand flickering with fire. "Talking to grouchy elementals is really her territory."

"I've seen you conjure a few." Gideon pointed out. "Can you sense it?"

"Not ones like whatever we're dealing with here." Chandra answered. "And no. Whatever it is, it's not any kind of fire elemental."

"Well, I'd say it knows we're here." Agrus said, gesturing behind them. They turned. There was a door against the far wall, dented and warped around the edges. Beads of liquid silver were pouring through the cracks and pooling on the ground.

"Fire time?" Chandra said, holding up a hand.

"Keep it small." Gideon nodded.

"Whatever." Chandra thrust out her hands, ten streaks of white-hot fire shot from her fingertips towards the spreading mass of silver. The liquid roiled and attempted to hurl itself out of the way. The bits of liquid that were too slow were vaporized, but more liquid gushed from behind the door and the globs that avoided the blast began to ripple. They swelled, stretching upward into the air like an army rising out of the ground. The liquid took on a menagerie of different shapes vedelkens, humans, goblins, dogs, and a bear. All of which began to advance on them as one silvery horde.

"It's copying the victims." Gideon called, "Chandra?"

"Way ahead of you." The pyromancer snarled, conjuring a wall of fire and sending it crashing towards the horde. Most of them slashed backwards, but a few pressed on through the flames. Gideon frowned, and extended the whips of his surrai.

"I don't believe these are the actual elemental." Agrus called, floating over the heads of the silver mob. A few of them swiped at him, but their limbs passed harmlessly through the specter. "I'm going to search for the source. Feather, assist then until I return." With that, Agrus slipped through the far door and out of sight.

"Understood." The angel stepped forward. She held no weapon, but her body seemed to ignite, an aura of radiant fire shrouding her body. A silvery dog leapt at her; metal fangs bared. Feather slashed at it contemptuously with her wing, bisecting it. The two halves hit the ground and yowled, trying to rise. Feather knelt and cast a wing over each of them. The dogs yowled, flailing as the burning wings enveloped them.

The silver bear leapt at Gideon, he backhanded it with his gauntleted hand. The bear's face splattered into the air, but the rest of it kept coming, slamming into and enveloping him.

"Gids!" Chandra yelped, looking over at him while she melted two silver goblins into slag. Gideon felt the liquid surging for his neck. He didn't know if these clones could kill or control him through his magic shell like they had the victims around the room, but he wasn't going to wait to find out. He flared his magic through his whole body, blasting the liquid off of him.

Several other clones were advancing on him, and he lashed out with his surrai. The whips glowed with hieromancy and slashed through the liquid figures. The white glow of his magic began to envelop them, trapping them in place. But before the magic could cover them entirely, parts of them broke away, hitting the ground and reforming into new figures.

Gideon frowned, taking a step back as the horde advanced on him again. These things couldn't hurt him, but he also couldn't hurt them, and trapping all of them in his magic would take forever.

"Gids," Chandra called. "I'm gonna do a thing. Brace yourself."

"Understood." He could feel a wall of heat building up behind him and new what was coming. "Feather!" he called. The angel was in the middle of the horde, scattering them left and right with her burning wings. She turned her ferocious gaze on him, then glanced past him to pyromancer. She clearly understood, because she took to the air, rising above the heads of the silvery horde.

Gideon concentrated, and drew his magic shell around himself, making it as thick as he could. "Ready!" he called.

FWOOM.

His world went white. It wasn't an explosion, but more like a semi-solid wall of heat that fanned out across the room. He felt it crash over him, even though his magic shell. Then the light faded, and silence fell, save for the sound of hissing.

Gideon blinked. Then blinked again, trying to clear the white spots from his eyes. There were still glowing spots, so he ground his knuckles into his eyes.

"Sorry, Gids." Chandra called. "Shoulda told you to close your eyes."

"It's fine." He answered, waving a hand back in the direction of her voice. "At least I wasn't facing you. Did you get them?"

"Did I get them?" she scoffed, sounding offended. He pulled his hand away from his eyes and blinked away the tears as his vision finally returned.

The room was glowing. The walls and floor shone cherry red, letting off shimmers of heat. Here and there he could spot hissing black spots of steam that had probably been their attackers. Even the glass tubes and machinery lining the walls were half melted.

"Yes." He said slowly, nodding. "I think it's safe to say you got them."

Chandra smirked. "What about you? feeling alright?"

"A little toasty," He admitted, feeling sweat running down his back, Chandra's little heatwave had turned the stone room into an oven, but he'd be alright. He looked around, Chandra was standing on the only patch of ground not glowing red. The salamander around her neck was staring around in a sort of wide-eyed befuddlement. Movement overhead made him look up. "How about you, Feather?"

"I am fine." The angel said, touching down lightly and passively staring at the room. She turned to Chandra. "I believe I understand now why Gideon felt the need to bring you."

Chandra snorted. "Gee, thanks."

"Feather, I've found—" Agrus's head stuck out through the far door and paused. It tilted left and right as it observed the room, he looked at Chandra.

"Got something to say?" she smirked, crossing her arms.

"I suppose not." He answered.

"Did you find the our quarry?" Gideon asked.

"Yes, come through here." Agrus withdrew his head and Gideon pried open the door, revealing a labyrinth of glass tubes and machines. The ghostly wojek waved at for them to follow him as he floated over the clutter. The walls were lined with a series of large glass tubes, large enough to hold a man. The tubes were empty, but some were cracked, and others had jagged holes in them. Gideon glanced at floor and saw glass shards scattered in front of those tubes. suggesting whatever the Izzet had been keeping in them had busted out.

"Back there." Agrus said, pointing. Gideon looked, there was one tube that wasn't empty, instead being filled to the brim with solid silver. The liquid roiled within the tube, bright orange circles roving across the surface like eyes. As they approached, the circles of light jerked around to focus on one point and Gideon had feeling it was staring at him.

The liquid began to contract, shrinking in on itself as a pair of arms and legs formed. In seconds, Gideon was staring at a mirror image of himself. Silvery and bulging with muscles from behind the glass prison, with a bright orange glow where the eyes should be. It glared at him with his own face, its chin thrust out in defiance.

"Well, that's not creepy at all." Chandra muttered, raising her hands. "Should I just roast it?" she sounded a little uncertain. "I mean, it looks trapped."

"Well, you three were fighting something." Agrus answered. "Judging by the tubes around the room, I'd say there may have been more than one and people have died because of them."

"But if those were different elementals…" Gideon began. Seeing himself, more or less, glaring out from a giant test tube was unsettling.

The ghost floated in front of him "Even if those were different elementals, there's no reason to believe this one would be any different if we let it out. Why?" The ghost sighed. "Don't tell me you want to keep this one as a pet as well?" He shook his head. "I understand what you're getting at, believe me. But I've seen what happens when an Izzet experiment goes on a rampage."

Gideon's doppelganger raised a fist and slammed it against the glass. The tube shook but didn't crack. It pulled back, its arm for another blow.

"Well, I won't try to force you to do it." Agrus said, shrugging. "Feather?"

"Understood." The angel stepped forward, her wings igniting once more as she stepped in front of the tube. The silver Gideon inside sneered back. "Rest in peace." Feather said, thrusting her wings forward and shooting out a column of divine fire. It enveloped the tube, blocking the imprisoned elemental from site.

Gideon watched the fire bath the area and frowned, he could have sworn that, just before the fire washed over it, he'd seen his copy's lips curl into a smirk.

A silvery arm shot out of the fireball and backhanded Feather, throwing her backwards into him as her flailing wings nearly bowled Chandra over. Gideon stepped backward, pulling Feather with him and squinted against the fading light.

The glass tube had been melted, but its former occupant stood tall, it's form flickering with a white glow.

"Great." Chandra muttered. "It didn't just copy your face, Gids. It got your beefiness too."

The silver copy stepped out of the puddle of molten glass and smirked. It's eyes glowing with a fierce light. Gideon met it halfway, slamming his gauntleted fist into his mimic's chest. Rather than splashing through it like before, he hit the solid shell of magic and sent the creature staggering backward. Its glowing eyes turned on him and it lunged, slamming into him and bearing them both to the ground.

"Gids!" Chandra called, moving back the elemental wrested with his clone. "What do we do? What's your magic's weakness?"

"I still need to breath." He grunted as a silvery fist slammed into his eye. The creature might be tough now, but at least it wasn't trying to engulf him like before.

"Okay, but I didn't think it needs to!" Chandra yelled angrily—he didn't really think she had room to complain at the moment, he was the one doing all the work. "Can you tell me something helpful?"

"No." he answered, picking up the clone and throwing it into a cluster of machinery. Lightning crackled out of the broken mechanisms, but the creature didn't seem to notice through the glowing white shell. Gideon frowned, he'd never had to fight someone who could match his invulnerability—it was rather troublesome. Maybe if he could bind it with his surrai? But if it could copy his magic, perhaps it could counteract it as well… but he wouldn't know until he tried.

Then Agrus floated in between them, his body flared blue, making them both pause.

"You're under arrest." He declared. "I will give you this one chance to surrender."

The elemental stared at the ghost for a moment, then stepped forward with a hand raised to swat at the ghost.

"Noted. Feather?"

There was a gust of wingbeats and the angel came in like a missile, slamming the elemental back. In a few deft movements, before it could react, she had rolled it over and slapped something onto its wrists. The air glowed and a second shell of pale red light enveloped the elemental. The Gideon doppelganger went rigid, only its glowing eyes moving beneath the shell.

"Stasis cuffs." The ghost explained. "For the more… unique strain of delinquent." He glanced at them, then back to his partner. "Good work, Feather."

"So… that's it?" Gideon blinked.

"Not to tempt fate, but it should be." The ghost nodded. "From this one at least." He frowned, glancing at the broken tubes around the walls. "But there might still be others out there. Still, now that we know what we're dealing with, tracking down any stragglers will be much easier. So for now, let's get out of here. You need any help carrying that thing, Feather? I mean, not that I can, but…" the angel shook her head, hoisting the silver figure into the air and over her shoulder. "Alright then." Agrus shrugged.

"So what's going to happen to that one." Chandra said, gesturing to the frozen figure. "Weren't you just going to dispose of it?"

"I wanted to." Agrus answered, rubbing a ghostly hand against his face. "Believe me, it would have been much easier. But you don't keep hitting the perp once the cuffs go on. Now it's a prisoner and we need to process it." He sighed. "I had to arrest a lightning elemental once. You would not believe the paperwork…"

"Aren't you no longer a wojek?" Gideon asked.

"True." The ghost nodded. "But that just means I have fewer official channels to go through. It's gonna make processing that thing all the harder. It's not like I'm going to sell it on the black market." He sighed, "I'm going to need to find a mage I can trust not to use it as a weapon or something stupid like that." He was silent for a long moment. "Which pretty much rules out any of the guild mages anyway."

Gideon eyed his silvery copy for a long moment. "Actually, I think I may have an idea about that…"

"Well." Said Jace. "This is much more interesting than paperwork." The mind mage was bent over the elemental, which Feather had dumped on the floor of Jace's office. Jace had his fingers pressed to the elemental's temple and his eyes were glowing as he peered into the creature's mind or… whatever it actually had.

"Anything useful you can tell me?" Agrus asked, arms crossed and leaning against the wall as he stared at Jace suspiciously.

Jace nodded. "It appears this was the only elemental the Izzet created in the lab. The bits that attacked you outside were only fragments of it that the mages siphoned off.

"Can you tell if there are any more of those fragments running around?" Agrus replied. "If so, we have to track them down before they kill anyone else."

"Not to worry," Jace answered, standing up and brushing off his hands. "The fragments are still connected to it. Once you put the main body in stasis, the rest were frozen as well. I should be able to craft a spell to summon all the renegade pieces back to it.

"What were the Izzet trying to do?" Chandra asked, from her perch on Jace's desk. She was burning up bits of paper and attempting to feed them to the salamander curled in her lap.

"It's kind of garbled." Jace admitted. "They spun this elemental out of raw mana, so it's awareness took a while to catch up. But from what I can tell, they were trying to create something that could copy another's magic." He tapped the elemental with his boot, eyeing the white shell of Gideon's magic still surrounding it. "I'd say they succeeded."

"Okay, that wasn't obvious at all," Chandra rolled her eyes. "But why?"

"If it were any of the other guilds, I'd say for unlawful activity." Agrus said. "But since it's the Izzet we are talking about, I'd give it a 50/50 chance between for unlawful activity, or just to see if they could." He eyed Jace. "You get any clue about who commissioned it?"

Jace shrugged. "I'm afraid not."

Agrus grunted in a that figures kind of way. "Which only leaves the question of what to do with this one." Agrus muttered, staring at the bond creature.

"Well," Jace said slowly. "You could leave it with me."

"And why, may I ask, should I do that?" Agrus asked.

Jace frowned at him and Gideon got the impression he was trying to read the ghost's mind to figure out what to say. Could the fact that Agrus was a ghost keep him from doing that?

"Well…" Jace said at last. "If you want to process it through official channels, I am the living embodiment of the Guildpact. I feel you could argue I'm the most official channel there is."

The ghost stared at him for a long moment.

"That's bullshit." he snorted, but Gideon could see the ghost was trying not to grin. "But it's a good kind of bullshit, I'll give you that much." He paused, and gave the mind mage a measuring look. "What would you do with it?"

"Not sure yet." Jace admitted, he glanced over at his desk where there were still mountains of papers. "I could use an assistant." He mused. "And, If I had it copy me and cast an illusion to fix the colors, I could have it go to meetings for me…"

Gideon put a hand on Agrus' shoulder or attempted to—his hand passed through the old wojek's body. "I think that's probably the best solution we're going to get. You can trust Jace, Agrus. He's sneaky, but he's not a bad person."

"Hey. Standing right here." Jace said indignantly.

"And talking out loud about how you might use it to get out of your responsibilities." Chandra answered, flicking a few paper ashes at him.

"Okay… fair." Jace admitted.

Agrus sighed. "…Fine. I've got a lot to do anyway. If you want to take it off my hands, I won't stop you." He said it in a way that made Gideon certain he'd be keeping tabs on what Jace did with the elemental. "I'll have Feather bring you the paperwork for transfer."

Jace's smile became a little fixed. "Is more paperwork really necessary?"

"Yes." Agrus answered, wagging a finger at him. "Take it from me, in this city, paperwork is one of the few certainties in life and the afterlife." The ghost straightened up. "Well," he said with finality. "I suppose that just about wraps this up. I won't take up any more of your time, Mr. Guildpact. Mr. Jura, Ms. Nalaar?" he glanced at them. "If I might have a few more words with you?" he gestured for the door.

"Well," Gideon said brightly, once they had closed the door behind them. "I think this went well."

"You would." Chandra grumbled, yawning. Gideon smiled, glancing out the window. It wasn't quite morning, but he was fairly certain the sun wasn't far off.

"So." He began, turning to the Agrus. "What's going to happen to the laboratory. Are you going to attempt to bring charges against the Izzet for the deaths?"

"Ha." Agrus said sourly. "I could try, but it would be a waste of time. I'd be making an Orvzhov lawyer's day if I tried."

"I could testify." Gideon said.

"Against who?" Agrus grunted. "I'd bet my lack of life that this was a private project. We have no way of knowing who is responsible. There may not even have been any other Izzet mages that even knew about it."

"So, what?" Chandra demanded. "They just get away with creating a monster?"

"Well, the mages who created it are dead." Agrus shrugged. "The point is that this threat to populace, at least, has been removed. That's what matters. I spent too much of my life bogged down in the bureaucracy of the legal system. I'll tell you right now, attempting to do anything more to pursue this would be a waste of time."

"Well, suppose another Izzet mage commissioned the elemental?" Gideon asked. "What's to stop them from making another one?"

"Fair point." Agrus nodded, his ghostly lips quirked. "But that'll be hard to do with all their notes destroyed and the equipment sold for parts."

"Oh, is that what Feather went off to do?" Gideon asked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Agrus answered blithely. "But enough about this." The ghost floated toward them and bowed his head. "Thank you for your assistance, tonight. Feather and I likely could not have done it alone."

"We were glad to be of assistance." Gideon smiled.

"Sure, whatever." Chandra yawned.

"Hmmm." The ghost scrutinized them. "Indulge an old man's curiosity, if I asked the two of you where you came from, what would you tell me?"

"I would ask you why you felt the need to ask something silly like that?" Gideon answered with a smile.

"I'd tell you to mind your own business." Chandra grunted, propping her head up with one hand.

"Yeah. I figured." The ghost snorted. "Well, truth be told. I don't really care. You say you want to protect the people of this city?"

"Oh, we wish to protect far more than that." Gideon smiled.

"…Fine. I wish you good luck with that. You want to help the people of this city? That's great. Something I can get behind." The ghost glanced at them. "To that end, if you ever need something, and don't want to go through the headaches of dealing with the guilds. Come find me. I have more than a lifetime of experience in how to get things done in this place, I know people. Just ask around for me, I'll hear about it."

"I'll keep that in mind." Gideon nodded.

Agrus stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. The ghost saluted, then floated away though the doorway into the street and out of sight.

S&DS&DS&DS&D

And there we have it. Just a quick story that took me a year to write. I just really wanted Agrus and Gideon to interact. The rest snowballed around that.

If you want a picture of what my creature was looking like, look up the magic card: Quicksilver Elemental. That's what I based it on.

Thanks for reading, and hopefully, reviewing (MTG fanfics don't get a lot of traffic, so if you enjoyed it, I'd appreciate a review).