Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Heterodyne Valley was peaceful in the night. If one did not know its history, it would be easy to think of it as an oasis of fertile farmland and forest amidst the hardscrabble farms clinging to the unforgiving rock on the other side of the mountains. Cupped by the gentle hands of the valley, Mechanicsburg sat still and quiet in the darkness. 

At an hour so late it was early, when the bars had closed but the bakers had not woken, Mechanicsburg was visible only as winding rivers of dim lamp light twining through pools of darkness. As they moved away from the tourist attractions and towards the Tumbles, the rivers split into tributaries: smaller streets lined with houses and more reasonably priced shops. One such shop was Muller’s Miscellaneous, where machinists could buy parts and sell scrap. 

To the left of the building was a dingy alleyway. During the day it was used to haul materials and merchandise in and out. This late at night, the only occupants were a two-headed rat and the frantic tabby cat it was chasing. The alley led around to the back of the shop, providing access to the door and window. 

The door was locked tight. The window was open. Fresh scratches marred the wood around the latch, which now hung slightly loose, forced out of place by a hand unused to breaking, let alone entering. Through the open window was the storeroom. It was filled with stacked metal sheets of varying compositions and sizes, buckets of gears, boxes of screws and nails, Gordian knots of copper wires. In the very center of it all, surrounded by a mandala of half-built parts and materials…

…was a girl.

She was approximately fifteen, splayed legs showing the gangliness of an unfinished teenage growth spurt, her long blonde hair breaking free of its ponytail to press sweaty strands against her ashen cheeks. Behind thick round glasses, her eyes were glazed. Her mouth hung open as she panted for air, unable to breathe past the blood that trickled from her nose.

Agatha’s headaches were usually like a vice or a bear trap, a sharp pressure that faded quickly when she let it drive her away from whatever had brought on the attack. But she had not let it drive her away this time, and after an hour, it had become spikes of white hot metal in her brain, pulsing with her heartbeat.

She had never been in so much pain in her life.

She did not let it stop her.

Agatha had been trying to build this for five years, and for five years she had been driven to tears of frustration as the pain chased her away. But not this time.

She wasn’t sure what had made that specific headache different, why this time the pain had filled her with a spiteful, stubborn contrariness, but it had. Agatha had decided she was far too old – almost an adult, as far as she was concerned – to allow her own misfiring neurons to hold her back. She was sick of it. Sick of the feeling of things being just out of reach, sick of knowing she could do things and not being able to.

Sick of failure.

‘I’m impressed at your recovery,’ Doctor Sun had said, the immovable calm to Saturnus’ unstoppable stubborn indignation. ‘But the damage is not all from your heart or the muscle atrophy.” 

In a strange way, though, it had gotten easier to think. The constant, endless agony was so consistent, she could almost let it fade into background noise.

Agatha’s trembling fingers hovered over a pile of neatly sorted screws, trying to remember what she’d been doing. Right. The joints in the legs. She tried to imagine the chair climbing up the stairs that connected to the road outside the bakery.

‘No, you can’t just give yourself a new pair of legs. The problem is in your brain. The part of it that connects with the muscles is damaged, and that is not something I can repair – and neither can you.’

He kept trying, though. The memory of Saturnus on the floor, face covered in blood from hitting the nightstand on the way down, haunted her still.

Like a spider. Second and fourth sets would operate as counterbalances – hold it steady while the first set reached and the third set pushed forward. Carefully she checked her blood-spattered notes, reminding herself of what kind of joint she was trying to build. What did it look like again?

‘A chair? Oh yes, being pushed around by some minder, that sounds perfect, letting the whole world know I can’t even turn a wheel with my own strength. I leave this house on working legs or in a box!’

A chair that could walk and climb, propelled by clockwork. The idea had flown in on wings of pain.

Blatantly evil Lord Saturnus may be, but Agatha loved him dearly, just as much as she did the virtuous Teodora. In her head, Grandfather came as easily as Lord Saturnus – easier, even . Grandm — Teodora was a bulwark against the world, protector and defender, and within the stronghold of her home, there was Saturnus to understand.

He never told her she wasn’t broken, or that there was nothing wrong with her. Neither did he let her succumb to self-loathing. Broken is not the same as useless. Though she was just some orphan that a friend of his estranged son had dumped on him, he loved her like flesh and blood.

It was getting hard to see. White light was chewing at the edges of her vision, and she had to squint to see past the colored halos dancing in front of her. She hadn’t even turned anything on yet, but she was sure she smelled something burning. 

Hands clamped down on her shoulders, and the screws tumbled from her fingers. She had to blink several times to focus on the face in front of her, and it took another few seconds to recognize Herr Müller, whose shop she had chosen to…patronize.

“Miss Sannikova!” He was shouting, but he wasn’t angry – he looked scared, actually. Perhaps he was just making sure he could hear her. His voice was so far away from her ears. “Agatha!”

“I can pay for the pieces,” she said, and heard only a strange gurgling sound. “I wasn’t sure how many I’d need so I thought I would pay for what I used, after.”

“Get a doctor!” Müller bellowed over his shoulder. “Agatha, can you hear me?”

His mouth kept moving but the pain in her head was audible now, roaring in her ears, making it impossible to even hear herself think. She began to hum, a cracked and broken sound that had no melody.  

Saturnus, seated in the hated wheelchair beside the hospital bed of the girl who did not know she was his granddaughter, found himself distracted by the thought of what an excellent tableau they all made. Agatha lying between them, drawn and pale. On either side, her grandparents, perfect visual and moral opposites.  

Saturnus had been an intimidating figure, once upon a time, built in size and shape much like a particularly clean-shaven bear. Even when middle age had come to call, thinning his copper hair and softening his middle, he had maintained his strength. 

Not any more. Not ever again, as a point of fact. Spending just under a decade half-dead and immobile, bedridden and insensate, took its toll. Even after Agatha had drawn him back into the waking world, even with wife and granddaughter ensuring he stuck with the tortures Sun had the nerve to call ‘physical therapy’, he’d never regain more than a fraction of his old strength. He was an old man now, and he looked every inch of it, right down to sitting in a wheelchair with a blanket over the useless sticks of his legs.  

In contrast, his wife, whom time had touched with a much gentler hand. 

Teodora Vodenicharova was tall and slender, with bright brown eyes and a long, elegant face. Their frantic race to get dressed and to the hospital had not left her time to put herself together in her usual impeccable appearance. Her long gray hair was still in a braid, not wound up in its usual complex bun, and her dress did not match the sash around her waist.     

Despite all her time in Mechanicsburg, she maintained the fashions of her homeland, and wore simple dresses of muted colors, given shape by embroidered sashes and brightened by flashes of color at the hems and buttons. It rankled Saturnus that she dressed like a peasant, and often he wished she would let him deck her in the jewels and finery befitting the Lady of Mechanicsburg.

Not that she required fine clothing to be distinguished from the common folk. Even now as she stood braced for the explosion of fury and outrage she knew would be coming, she held herself tall and proud, regal as any queen, just as always.   

Saturnus turned his head away from her, and his gaze fell on Agatha’s locket on the bedside table, wound up in its chain. Saturnus reached out and picked it up, but did not open it. He could feel the effect of the locket, but he was a grown man and a strong Spark, so it was nothing but a faint tingling in the base of his skull. Nothing he could not ignore. He doubted he would even notice if he didn’t know it would be there. 

“How did you ever manage it?” he asked, turning the locket over in his hands. “All those years, watching her suffer, listening to her talk about herself like that? Knowing what it was. Knowing you could stop it.”

Teodora said nothing. He laughed briefly, soft and humorless.

“Funny. I’m pretty sure I was meant to be the evil one in this relationship.”

He heard Teodora’s sharp inhale. In a few quick strides she rounded the bed to stand beside him. When she spoke, it was with a rage that trembled with the effort of keeping quiet.

“Is that supposed to wound me? As if your good opinion was ever anything but a curse? As if I never prayed that you would grow bored and send me away again? Don’t you dare fool yourself into thinking that my heart has gone soft with time, Lord Heterodyne.”

But all he did was let out a soft, amused hum, and give her a condescending smile.

“So that’s it, then. The great, noble Teodora Vodenicharova played dutiful wife by her husband’s side, not for love, not for duty…but because you enjoyed seeing me brought low. Seems you fit into this family quite well.”

“How dare you—!” Teodora, white with rage, actually tried to slap him. He caught her arm easily and dragged her in, meeting her furious glare with his own hard, cold stare. 

“You certainly seem wounded by my poor opinion,” he said.

“That is not why I did it, and this has nothing to do with you. I did what I thought was necessary,” Teodora hissed, her voice hoarse. “I did what I thought was best to keep. Her. Safe.”

“And if I think this is a cruel and terrible thing, what does that say about you?” He released her and sat back in the wheelchair. He’d consented to it only to get to the Great Hospital to see Agatha, far too terrified to even feel the sting to his pride.

“Barry said she started breaking through when she was five— ”

“If he’d done it to anyone but flesh and blood,” Saturnus interrupted. “I’d be downright proud of him.”

Saturnus saw the words hit Teodora, saw her flinch, and bore down.

“But as it is, I am having trouble understanding why you were willing to go along with your son putting our granddaughter’s mind on a choke-chain leash without having the decency to tell her WHY!”    

For the first time in all their years of marriage, Teodora took a step back – but Teodora was Teodora. She had stood up to the Lord of Mechanicsburg, again and again and again, and had not just lived but won. Teodora was kind and gentle and would come down like a hammer on any threat to those she loved as fiercely as any Heterodyne. When Saturnus had declared her sons ruined, told her that he planned to kill them and start over, Teodora had stopped him. Not just stopped him, forced him to stand down, forced him to hand his beloved town to his “ruined” son, permanently, and let him rule and ruin as he pleased. 

And Saturnus loved her still, with all his heart.   

“What would you have done, in his place?” she challenged. “You think a five-year-old has the capability of understanding such an abstract danger? She would have had that thing off in seconds. Even now, I don’t think she’s old enough. She’ll get frustrated or want the pain to stop—”

“She thinks she is broken!”

“We cannot keep her safe.”

The words were like a hammer blow.

“Those headaches are half the reason no one thinks she could possibly be who she is!” Teodora said. “If anyone ever so much as doubted that? They would come for her, and there is no guarantee this town could protect her. Your pride was nearly the death of you, but I will not let you put her in mortal danger simply because you don’t want to admit that you are not the man you were, and this town cannot do what it is meant to do.” 

“She—”

“Am I wrong?”

“She needs—”

“Am. I. Wrong.” 

Saturnus couldn’t look at her. Yes, he was furious on Agatha’s behalf. Yes, it was a horrific thing to do to a girl, to keep doing to her. But it was no small part of him that did not want to admit that this device was better protection than he could provide. That this pain might be the best thing they could do for her.

He could not protect his grandchild.

Again.

Agatha stirred, her eyelids fluttering open. Her brow furrowed.

“Ow,” she whispered. Her gaze fell on Saturnus and Teodora. Her hazy expression grew puzzled. She looked around at the hospital room, and down at herself, and realized where she was. “Am I in trouble?”

“No,” Teodora said gently, reaching out and squeezing her hand. “No, darling, you’re not in trouble.”

“Important life lesson,” Saturnus said, attempting to sound jovial. “If you scare everyone badly enough, you can get away with anything.”

“Saturnus,” Teodora scolded, but Agatha giggled weakly. Her smile faded when Saturnus reached out and stroked her hair.

“What the hell were you doing?” he asked, gently.

“I was building you a chair,” she said softly. “Something you wouldn’t have to push. I thought maybe if you didn’t need help, you wouldn’t mind being seen in it. But every time I tried to build it, I got the headache and I just…”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“I was just so tired of being broken.” She began to cry, and Saturnus felt his heart break in ways he didn’t know it could. He took Agatha’s hand in both of his, squeezing tightly.

“Don’t do it again,” he said, nearly begging. “Broken or not, yours is a marvelous mind, and I would not have you cauterize it for anything – but especially not for me.”

“I wanted to help .”

“I know, I know. Here. When you’re well enough to leave, we’ll go back home and build it together. And go nice and slow, so neither of our bodies has reason to try and kill us, hmm?”

Her smile was weak, and he knew it wouldn’t be satisfying. She was a teenager, a Spark, a Heterodyne , and Saturnus knew that there was no feeling like watching your first big project cut a swath of destruction across the land and being able to think I did that, all on my own.  

“Oh,” Agatha said. “You’ve got my locket.”

She reached for it, but Saturnus pulled away.

“No jewelry in the hospital,” he lied. “Put it on when you go home.”

“The doctor wants to keep you overnight, just in case,” Teodora said, putting a gentle hand on Agatha’s knee. “We’ll see how you feel in the morning.”

Agatha nodded and closed her eyes. Neither Saturnus or Teodora spoke until Agatha’s breathing was the slow, steady rhythm of sleep.

“You didn’t tell her,” Teodora said, not voicing the question. 

“I thought it would be best to wait ‘til we get home. The locket, her parents – when we tell her, she’ll be angry, and I’d rather she not shout at us where half of Mechanicsburg could hear.”

“We’re not telling her.”

“Like hell we’re not—”

“ No. She’s too young, and she’s a terrible liar.”

“After all that, you still want her to wear it,” Saturnus said, amazed. “After what we just saw, what she just said, you still —”

“Do you think I’m enjoying this?” Teodora demanded. “I hate this just as much as you do, but we do not have a choice, Saturnus.”

“If you don’t tell her, I will.”

“No. You won’t.”

“And how exactly will you stop me? Kill me?”

The expression on Teodora’s face was very like the one she’d worn the day she’d told him he would not be killing their sons. When she spoke, her voice was ice and steel.

“I do not need to kill you.”

Saturnus tried to glare at her, but it was like trying to stare down the sun. And still, he loved her. More, really. When she got like this, he couldn’t help but think if she’d been a little less compassionate, she could have rivaled the Skull Queen herself.

He looked away.

“I can’t do it again,” Teodora said, in a much gentler voice. “I can’t. Klaus Barry was bad enough – for both of us. I won’t lose another grandchild.”

Agatha inhaled sharply, and they both froze. But she simply sighed in her sleep and rolled over.

They watched over her in silence until visiting hours ended, both too lost in their own thoughts, feeling no less trapped and miserable for worries shared.

They did not speak again until the next morning, when a breathless, terrified nurse appeared at their door to tell them that Agatha was gone.

Chapter Text

Grandmother and Grandfather,

I am leaving for Beetleburg to stay with the Clays, like Uncle Barry first planned. Please understand that I love you and I love Mechanicsburg, but it is because I love Mechanicsburg that I can’t stay.

Until now, my failures have hurt no one but myself, except for when things blew up. I want to make sure it stays that way. People are disappointed when I'm not a Heterodyne. I don't want to see how disappointed they are when I am. This town has been waiting so long for a Heterodyne. To give them me would be unforgivable.

But while I can’t be a Heterodyne, I will always be:

Your loving granddaughter,

Agatha

Teodora sat on the stairs, her face buried in her handkerchief as Saturnus read the note. His hand was tight around the locket, which had been wrapped up in the note and left on Agatha’s pillow for Teodora to find. Some of Agatha’s clothes were gone, as was the backpack she had once worn when travelling with Barry from town to town.

“Never thought I would hate to say I told you so,” Saturnus said. He felt so strange, like his body was miles away. “The universe does enact such poetic justice on this family, I must say.”

“It’s all my fault,” she said, voice muffled. “This is all my fault.”

“Yes,” Saturnus said, distractedly, rubbing his chin and staring at nothing. “It is.”

She dropped her hands and glared at him with red-rimmed eyes. He caught her expression and frowned.

“Well, it is ,” he said. “I’ll grant that Barry started this mess, but you’re the one who couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

“ Thank you, ” Teodora snapped. “For your words of comfort.”

“Since when have you ever wanted me to comfort you?” Saturnus asked, not so bewildered he could not also be annoyed.

“Since I drove our granddaughter to run away! You’re perfectly capable of comforting her!”

“Yes, but she does not hate me.”

“I don’t hate you.” 

“Oh, don’t be missish now. I’m hardly going to be offended.”

Teodora sighed and gave him a tired look.

“Saturnus, I have not hated you since the day Bill came home and said you told him you would be evil even if it meant he couldn’t love you.”

Saturnus flinched, slightly, and looked away. They had never spoken of it, any of them, and although Saturnus knew Bill would have told her, it had never occurred to him what she might think of it.  

“He blew that completely out of proportion,” Saturnus said, stiffly. “I simply indicated to him that I don’t respond to ultimatums, not even from my own son.”

And Bill had lived up to his word. Saturnus did not give up his hobbies, did not reject the things that brought him pleasure, did not rewrite the very core of himself to be someone capable of being kind and good. In return, Bill and Barry ceased to love him.  

Sometimes it felt like they’d forgotten they ever had. 

“Yes,” Teodora said. “You are what you are, and I can no more hate you for it than I can hate a hawk for killing a songbird.”

Saturnus stared at her. Warily, as if she might bite, he reached out a hand towards her. She pulled away, as she always did.

“I am not saying—”

“I know,” he said. “I know. I have never expected you to love me, Teodora, or that I could ever do anything to make you do so. I’m a selfish man; I did not need you to – all I needed was to have you with me.” 

He did not say, because he knew she did not want to hear it, that all he had needed was to have her. To own her, to ensure that every day he could see this beautiful woman who refused to fear him. Saturnus had worried she might break or fade away in the cage of their marriage, but she had stayed wonderfully, infuriatingly strong. His.   

“That you don’t hate me is more than I ever expected, and I am not so foolish as to ask for more.”

He reached out again, and this time she did not pull away when he rested his hand on her shoulder.

“W e can fix it. We know where she’s going. She may even make it to Beetleburg before we find her. We should still try , but she’s not in certain danger. Travel is not what it was when we were her age.”

“Yes – you aren’t out there, for a start,” Teodora said wryly, but she dried her eyes. Saturnus chuckled, and, feeling he had pushed his luck far enough, withdrew his hand. He rubbed his thumb across the palm of that hand, absentmindedly.

“I’ll find Carson, have him identify any airships or carts that have left in the last twelve hours headed in Beetleburg’s direction. The Corbettites might tell us if she took the train…well. They might tell you . Send a message to Punch and Judy, too, in case she beats us there.”

Saturnus hesitated.

“We’ll find her,” he said, as gently as someone like him ever could. “We’ll fix it.”

It had almost worked.

In fairness, she had intended to buy her ticket fair and square, but in Sturmhalten, all tickets were purchased in the main station, rather than paid to the captain directly. That meant if anyone came and asked about her, there would be guaranteed at least one person who would have spoken to her and known exactly what ship she took. Agatha’s plan had been to sneak onboard the ship at the last minute and pay the fare once the ticket taker came around. They’d charge her an extra fee, but she’d pay it.

In Sturmhalten, this was apparently a crime.

“If I have to pay at the counter I’ll pay at the counter, you don’t have to drag me off!”

“Everyone has to follow the rules, miss.” The guard was not too much taller than Agatha, but his grip was iron and his step unimpeded by her struggling. To Agatha’s unkind eye, he had the look of a man sliding into late middle age on a sled made of regrets and abandoned dreams, a ride which clearly could only be made bearable by harassing people who hadn’t done anything wrong.

People were staring. Agatha hated it when people stared.   

“I didn’t know it wasn’t allowed! Is this really an arrestable offence ?”

“What is going on?”

Two men approached, one wearing a captain’s uniform and a pinched, avaricious face;  and the other with startlingly red hair and an expensive velvet suit ruined by dark stains. Agatha chose to recognize them as engine oil. The guard saluted with his free hand. 

“Sir, your highness. I caught her trying to sneak onboard one of the ships without paying.”

“I was going to buy my ticket on the ship!” Agatha protested. Your highness? How seriously did they take fare dodging in Sturmhalten? 

“Sure you were,” the captain sneered. “Do you know what we do to stowaways?”

“I wasn’t stowing away, I didn’t do anything wrong! Let me go!”

The guard released Agatha’s arm so suddenly she stumbled and nearly fell. Looking up at him in surprise, she saw his face was blank, his eyes glazed.

“You should let her go,” the captain said, in a strange, flat voice. He, too, was glassy-eyed and distant.

“Yes,” the guard said. “We should let her go.”

“You should,” Agatha said warily, backing away. Was this some kind of trap? A practical joke? Haha we’re going to arrest you just kidding. But why? They looked so strange .  “So...I’ll just be going…”

“Wait!” the third man said. He smiled. “I am Prince Aaronev Sturmvoraus. Please, allow me to apologize for the behavior of my men. They are...overzealous at times.”

There was something unpleasant about his manner. His expression and voice were perfectly pleasant, but there was a fire in his eyes she didn’t like, an almost frantic eagerness.

“Well...so long as they don’t arrest me,” she said, trying to inch backwards without looking like she was.

“Where are you bound?”

“To Beetleburg,” Agatha said. “I’m visiting some friends.”

“Ah, what a perfect coincidence! I have a meeting with the Tyrant himself, and my children and I are headed there first thing tomorrow! As an apology for the inconvenience, I insist you travel with us on the royal airship.”

“I...I really am in a bit of a hurry,” she said uncertainly.

“Not a problem at all,” the prince said. “My airship is much faster than commercial travel. Even leaving tomorrow, we shall beat them there.”

The faster she got there, the more time she’d have to convince the Clays to let her stay. Surely it couldn’t hurt, so long as she kept her guard up. And even if he did try something, Agatha could fight and the prince was barely taller than she was. 

“Then...I accept. Thank you, your highness.”

Her uncertainty grew, threatening to bloom into unease, when Aaronev’s eyes lit up even brighter.

“Excellent! Come with me, please, do come! I would like to introduce you to my daughter Anevka. She’s just about your age, and she is always in need of new companions.”

Anevka was indeed a year younger than Agatha. She dressed like a fairy-tale princess: her hair up in an intricate bun of loops and curls, her poofy dresses in a thousand layers of fabric embroidered with gold thread and trimmed with tiny pearls. Her makeup was immaculate and even her perfume smelled expensive. 

She was also awful.

Anevka reminded Agatha of her most malicious bullies, the pretty girls who smirked at her from their safe little groups and whispered to each other behind their hands. The way she talked reminded Agatha of Nora, particularly: the expert in saying things Agatha would initially mistake for a compliment, who would then laugh in her face when Agatha said thank you.

If they’d been a few years younger, Agatha had no doubt Anevka would invite her to play house – with Agatha as the servant.

Aaronev also had a son, whose name was Tarvek, but he wasn’t there. He was, according to Anveka, off sulking because their cousin Zulenna had just been “invited” to Castle Wulfenbach as a hostage. Oh, he claimed he didn’t care, but Anevka knew he was still being silly about getting himself kicked off the castle as a young boy.

It was his own fault, Anevka said with her nose in the air, for being foolish enough to make an actual friend, instead of an easily manipulated ally, like a proper Sturmvoraus.

That was the point when Agatha did as Lady Teodora always suggested, and removes herself from the situation before she said something rude. Pretending she needed the bathroom, Agatha slipped out of the room and down the hall. When she saw guards, she walked purposefully, to avoid questions. When she was alone, she opened doors at random, looking for...she wasn’t sure what. A room full of the skeletons of other young girls the prince had invited on airship rides, perhaps?

Don’t be silly, she told herself. That’s ridiculous. It’s not like he’s a Heterodyne.

What she did end up finding was a reading room. It was small, but the shelves were filled with books. On one side of the room was a small table and two chairs. On the other, an unlit fireplace and a few comfortable armchairs. Directly across from the door was a large window overlooking the forest.

The window had a well-padded seat, on which sat a boy about a year older than her, with hair the same deep red as Aaronev and Anevka’s. He set the thick book he was reading down beside him and levelled a suspicious glare at her through the large, square lenses of his glasses.

“Who are you?” he demanded, in a haughty voice. Agatha bristled, and opened her mouth to tell him that good manners cost nothing, even to a rich boy. She realized that, given the hair, this was probably his castle, and thought that she, too, would not particularly appreciate strangers barging in on her while she was reading. 

“Agatha Sannikova,” she said. “Are you Tarvek?”

“I am Master Tarvek Sturmvoraus of Sturmhalten, yes,” Tarvek said, haughty shifting into snippy . “What are you doing here?” 

“Your father is going to give me a ride to Beetleburg.”

Tarvek stared at her, scrunching his nose up.

“ Why?”

“ One of the guards tried to arrest me for getting on a ship before I bought my ticket. Your father said he wanted to apologize, and since you’re going there tomorrow anyway—”

“No, we aren’t. We never go to Beetleburg. Why would we?”

Agatha’s unease returned tenfold.

“I don’t know!” she snapped. “I told the guard to let me go, and he did, and then your father got so...strange.” She rubbed her arms. “I should go, shouldn’t I? Maybe I can sneak out and he won’t notice I’m gone. I’ll find a, a caravan or something to hide in ‘til I get to the next airship stop.”

She glanced at Tarvek. For a second, he looked troubled and uneasy, but then she blinked and the look was gone.

“He gets...caught up in strange notions sometimes. Are your parents waiting for you?”

Automatically, Agatha’s hand went to her throat, but it closed around empty air. Her locket wasn’t there – it was on her pillow in Mechanicsburg, where she’d left it. Agatha felt a wave of homesickness so strong she thought she might be sick.

“No, my parents are...are gone. I’m going to visit some friends of my uncle.”

“Do you know how to ride a horse?”

Agatha blinked, furrowing her brow. “A little.”

“Father gets…notions sometimes. Noblesse oblige – he feels that the privilege of our station comes with a responsibility to those without it. He is excitable, but he is also easily distracted. He’ll probably have forgotten about it by this afternoon. I’ll take you down to the stables and tell the hostlers to lend you a horse. You can ride it to the next town over. I’ll send someone later to get it back.”

“Oh, thank you!” Agatha beamed, relieved. The prince wasn’t some murderous madboy, just one of those rich folks who thought they should get a medal for treating the peasantry with a modicum of politeness. 

Mechanicsburg loved those people. 

“Is it alright if I stay here with you? I was supposed to be having tea with your sister, but I...would rather stay here.”

Tarvek snorted, and hurriedly hid his amusement.

“I don’t blame you. You can stay here. Help yourself to the books.”

“You have a wonderful collection,” she said, admiring. Tarvek stood and joined her at the shelf, eyes flicking over the titles. 

“Here,” he said, and pulled a slim gray volume down off the shelf and passed it to her. Agatha read the title and laughed for the first time in days. Principles of Elan Vital by V. T. Dubois. Her own copy was still on Saturnus’ bookshelf. The first time Saturnus had spoken since his second stroke was to laugh when Agatha offered to read it to him. Sitting on the stool by his bed, pausing every few paragraphs for Saturnus to insult the poor methodology or tell unflattering stories about Dubois from when they were in university together, learning he was funny and clever and as good a companion when he could talk as when he was listening...for that memory alone, Agatha would always love the book.

But that didn't make it any less hysterically bad.

“What’s so funny?” Tarvek demanded, affronted. “I know it’s a little out of date, but I thought he had some very interesting ideas.”

“He doesn’t,” Agatha said with a grin. “Come here, I’ll tell you everything he gets wrong.”

Chapter Text

“...and that’s why he thinks you can’t reanimate insects.” 

“Fascinating,” Tarvek said, adjusting his glasses. “I guess I always assumed this was written before Linnaeus’ Anthology of Arthropod Attitudes was published.” 

“Lo–a friend of mine said Dubois fulfilled his university’s athletics requirements by jumping to conclusions.” 

Tarvek burst out laughing, then hurriedly covered it with a cough. 

“Did your friend—” He cut himself off, tensed and turned away, cocking his head to the side. Soon Agatha heard it as well: Prince Aaronev coming down the hallway, shouting at the top of his lungs.

“...cannot come barging in here! This is unacceptable! This is outrageous! Vassal of the Empire or no, I will not be undermined in my own—”  

The door to the library swung open and Captain Vole walked in.

On her first week in Mechanicsburg, Lady Teodora had pointed him out to Agatha and given her two rules: never go near him, and never mention him to Lord Saturnus. The latter, Agatha had easily understood, once the rumor mill had told her what he had done. The former had never made much sense to her.

Until now.

“Ah. Und here iz de girl dot hyu said hyu had not seen,” Vole said, his curling sneer of derision revealing a mouthful of dagger-sharp teeth that glinted in the light. 

Aaronev stuttered and flushed. Agatha recognized the expression she’d seen on tourists getting kicked out of bars and shops for bad behavior. This was someone who was used to obedience at all times, and certainly not used to backchat from ‘subordinates’.

“Well – well – how was I supposed to know this was who you meant?” he blustered. “She never said she was from Mechanicsburg!”

Agatha jumped to her feet automatically, the book tumbling from her lap, but couldn’t find her voice.

“How many unattended young girls come through dis city of hyurs?” Vole asked, dryly. “Must be a lot, if hyu cannot tell dem apart. Mebbe I should say zumtink to de Baron.” His amusement vanished and he pointed at Agatha. “Hyu come vit me now.” 

Agatha shook her head, hard.

“You can’t just barge in here and take her away!” Tarvek said, putting his hand on Agatha’s shoulder. It was more comforting than Agatha anticipated, and it gave her the strength to stick out her chin defiantly. 

“Oh, yez I can,” Vole said to Agatha, even though it was Tarvek who had spoken. “I iz Captain Vole of de Mechanicsburg Security Division. Hyu is a shneaky runavay, und I am here to take hyu home to hyu grandpoppa.”

Agatha’s stomach dropped in fear. He knew. Everything she’d heard about the captain said that he was not the kind to go haring after lost children out of the goodness of his heart, and everyone knew he’d turned against the family, the whole family. 

She had asked, once. She hadn’t been able to stop herself. Saturnus had been talking about the Jägertroth and what it meant, and it had just popped out. He hadn’t gotten angry; hadn’t ranted even a little bit about traitors and betrayal. He’d gotten very quiet, which was much, much worse.

“Jägers aren’t allowed in Mechanicsburg,” Tarvek said, his eyes narrowing. Vole’s lip curled.

“I iz not a Jäger.”

Tarvek raised his eyebrows. 

“You look like a Jäger.” 

There was the teeth, of course, but there was also the hat, slightly taller than was normal for even a dress uniform. Vole was young enough to be humanoid, but old enough for claws and seafoam green skin. 

Old enough for his first Jäger gift: enormous eyes of pure black, shining like liquid pools of bitumen pitch.  

“Not effery construct from Mechanicsburg iz a Jäger.” 

“You sound like a Jäger.”

“I sound like I iz from Mechanicsburg,” Vole said, irritation visibly increasing. “I vork for de Baron, und dot means if hyu obstruct my progress any more, I can haff efferyvun here arrested. Hokay? Hokay.” He pointed at Agatha. “Come. Efferyvun has been very vorried about hyu.”

Agatha shook her head. She wanted to leave, she really did, but getting torn to shreds by Vole as vengeance against her family the moment she set foot outside Sturmhalten was not exactly better .

“I iz not goink to go back und tell efferyvun dot I found hyu und let hyu go because hyu asked nizely ,” Vole said. “Hyu vill be coming back to Mechanicsburg vit me – und hyu can valk, or hyu can be carried. Is up to hyu.”

“I’m not a child,” she said. “You can’t make me.”

Before Agatha knew what was happening, she found herself tossed over Vole’s shoulder like a sack of flour. It took him apparently no effort, and he didn’t even seem to notice the weight.

"Put me down!”

“I said valk or be carried, und I meant it,” Vole informed her. His voice held no amusement or enjoyment, and his hand was firmly latched onto her belt, which was the only reason she didn’t immediately put an elbow in his eye.

“You can’t—!” Aaronev burst out. Like swatting a fly, Vole gave the man a small shove that knocked him off his feet. “You dare—!”

Vole ignored him, heading down the hall with the struggling Agatha over his shoulder.

“The Baron will hear of this!” Aaronev shouted.

“‘Herr Baron,’” Vole called back sarcastically, without slowing, “‘I found a girl dot ran avay from home und kept her in my castle, und vun of hyu soldiers came und took her back to her family.’ Ya, he vill be very unhappy vit me, I am sure.”

Aaronev’s expression was one of panic and fear, and it was frightening the same way his excitement had been frightening. 

But beside him, Tarvek looked almost relieved.

Then Vole turned the corner, and both were out of sight.

“Are you going to kill me?” Agatha asked quietly. Vole snorted.

“After effryvun has seen me take hyu avay? Und I vould haff to explain hyu mysterious disappearance?” There was a brief silence. “I iz doing a favor for hyu grandpoppa.”

“Put me down,” Agatha said. “I can walk.”

He dropped her none-too-gently to her feet. Agatha followed him in the sullen silence of a chastised teenager, though secretly she was grateful to him for taking her out of this place. She could always try and escape him once they were outside of Sturmhalten, and continue on her way to Beetleburg.

Although...if he could track her here, he could probably just find her again. How much inconvenience would he put up with on the order of the former Lord of Mechanicsburg? Who he rather vehemently no longer served. 

“I thought you don’t work for my family anymore.”

“I don’t,” Vole said, tightly. “Iz like I said. I iz doink hyu grandpoppa a favor.”

“I heard you hate us. A lot.”   

Vole’s mouth thinned, and he said nothing.

“Don’t you?” she asked.

No response.

“What happened when—?“

“Dese iz all very personal qvestions,” Vole said, sharply. “All hyu need to know iz, I respect Lord – I respect hyu grandpoppa enough to leave my post und use my time off to—”

Vole stopped short. The hallway ahead of them was barred by two women – strange, colorless women, all white from hair to eyes to skin. They weren’t wearing much by way of clothes, but they both carried long, sharp swords.

Agatha took a nervous step back and glanced up at Vole. He was grinning with wild excitement.

“Ho, so de prince of Sturmhalten is de fun kind of shtupid,” he said.

The women lunged, Agatha shrieked, but Vole was a whirl of claws, and in what seemed like seconds, the women fell dead. The captain seemed almost disappointed at the brevity of the fight. He looked down at the blood spattered across his neat white jacket and frowned.

“Tch. Dot vill stain.” He glanced at Agatha, but Agatha was staring at the bodies. She’d never seen a dead body before. Next year, the biology teacher would take the class on a field trip to the town morgue to witness an autopsy of a suitably grisly death. Agatha had been quite looking forward to it. 

Now she was not so sure. It was one thing to think of a body laid out on a slab in a sterile medical environment, or as parts in a grand experiment. But these were just…people. They had been alive, and now they were dead. She felt numb, except for a distant sort of relief that their eyes were already clouded, with no iris or pupil, so that she did not have to see what eyes looked like with no spark of life within them. 

Vole grabbed her forearm and jerked her forward a step, roughly. “Stay close. Ve move qvickly now. ”

Agatha did so, scurrying to keep up with Vole’s long-legged strides. 

The hallways were empty of even the guards she had seen before, which only increased their wariness. No servants, no voices, no life.

They made it through two more doors before they heard a sudden grinding of stone, and Vole pivoted sharply, letting a long, crescent-bladed spear slide uselessly past him. He grabbed the haft and wrenched it out of the hands of the startled warrior – another one of the pale women, standing in the mouth of a hole in the wall that had not been there a moment ago. Vole spun the spear around, placed a hand on the butt of the spear, and Vole thrust forward, impaling not just the woman who had attacked, but the one behind her as well. Both bodies crumpled to the ground, locked together by the spearhaft.

Vole looked around sharply, but was startled when he saw Agatha still standing behind him.

“Oh,” he said, surprised. “I thought hyu vould try und run avay vhile I vuz distracted.”

“As if,” Agatha said hotly. “You said you’re here to get me home safely on behalf of my grandfather. They’re obviously trying to stop me from leaving. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

Vole looked impressed.

“Schmott girl.”

They froze when the lights overhead flickered and dimmed. After a few seconds, they brightened again. 

“What was that?” Agatha whispered.

“Nottink good for us,” Vole murmured.

“It’s the—”

Vole whirled, lashing out, and his claws missed Tarvek’s nose by a hair’s breadth.

“I’m here to help!” Tarvek insisted, raising his hands and backing away hurriedly. “My father turned on the lightning moat; you’ll never get out on your own.”

Vole grabbed Tarvek by the front of his jacket and lifted him one-handed off the ground, so they were nose to nose. 

“Und vy do I trust dot hyu vant to get us out of here?”

Tarvek showed no sign of intimidation, meeting Vole’s glare with a level stare of his own. 

“Because you don’t have a choice. You can’t fight your way through a lightning moat. If you want to get out of the castle – and believe me, you do – you have to take the secret passageways, and you don’t know them like I do. You’ll waste time getting lost even before you get to the tunnels that connect to the town.” 

Vole’s eyes narrowed. Agatha knew he knew that Tarvek was right, but didn’t want to admit it.

“You knew this was going to happen,” Agatha said. “You were going to try and get me out.” 

“Yes,” Tarvek said, twisting his head around to look at her. “I don’t know what, exactly, but it’s never good when Father takes an interest in someone. I didn’t tell you because I was worried you’d get frightened and run off. They’d just catch you and lock you up, and then I’d never be able to get you out. Late afternoon is when Father would be in his workshop and the guard would be changing shifts.” 

“You don’t even know me.” 

“I don’t have to know someone to not want them dead,” Tarvek snapped. “Or worse.” 

Agatha did not ask what might be worse. She looked to Vole, who gritted his teeth and dropped Tarvek. The boy landed neatly on his feet, like a cat, which visibly annoyed Vole.  

“ Fine ,” Vole said. “But if hyu iz lyink, I vill kill hyu in a very painful vay, und I know lots of painful vays. Yes?”

Tarvek glared at Vole.

“This isn’t a trick.”

“Proof it.”

Tarvek led them down another hall and drew aside a tapestry. He pressed down on part of the mortar between two stones, and a section of the wall shuddered and slid away.

“Down here.”

Vole snagged him by the collar, none-too-gently. 

“I go first. Der Geisterdamen iz comink up trough dese tunnels. Hyu stay out of my vay.”

“The what?” Agatha asked, following Vole down the tunnel, Tarvek right behind her. It was wide enough that she did not feel uncomfortably confined, but not so wide that anything could easily push past Vole to get to her. She felt comforted to have Tarvek at her back. He seemed the sort of person who could not be snuck on, and she didn't need to be tensed for someone grabbing her from behind. 

“Der Geisterdamen,” Vole said. “Hyu mostly see dem out in de Vastelands. Der Baron alvays thought dey vuz suspicious, but dey neffer caused enough trouble to be vorth lookink at dem too close.” Agatha heard the smirk in his voice. “Heh. Und now ve know dey is plenty suspicious. How many of dem does hyu Poppa have down dere?”

“Not quite a small army, but enough to be trouble,” Tarvek said.

“Why does he want me?”

“Because he’s insane,” Tarvek growled. “Bad enough trying to keep you here when he thought no one would notice you gone, but to try and stop a soldier of the Empire? Idiot.”

“Qviet,” Vole said sharply. “De sound echoes. Dun talk unless hyu need to.”

Agatha did not need to look at Vole’s face to know he was thinking the same thing she was. Attacking an officer of the Empire was a dangerous and stupid thing to do. No one would think an ordinary girl worth invoking the Baron’s wrath.

But if that girl was the Heterodyne...

Prince Aaronev had known, Agatha realized. She didn’t know how, but it explained why he had been so...excited. Something about her, something about the way she looked…

Let me go!

...or maybe something she’d said?

The tunnel wound erratically, occasionally splitting off, always going downward. Tarvek would whisper the direction to turn, but otherwise no one spoke.

The tunnel flattened out suddenly, opening into a chamber so wide the corners were lost in the gloom. Down the middle ran a river – although to Agatha, used to the churning, racing waters of the Dyne, it seemed more like a long, narrow lake.

“Dese are de tunnels, yes?”

Tarvek nodded.

“Good. Hyu vill go back now.”

“ No! You can't get out withou–!" 

“We can’t leave him here!” Agatha protested. Tarvek's mouth stayed slightly open, but no sound came out as he stared at her. 

“If de prince is involved in dis, so is he. ”

“You don’t know that!” Agatha snapped. “You don’t have any proof!”

“I dun need proof. I iz not arresting him, I iz not trusting him.”

“He hasn’t done anything but help us!”

“This place is a maze,” Tarvek interrupted. “It’s worse than the secret passages in the castle. I know the safest routes, and while I’m sure you could handle the monsters, you need me to tell you where the traps are.”

Vole wavered, clearly torn, and getting angry about it.

“First, hyu tell me vut hyu poppa vants vit Agatha.”

“He wants to give her to the Geisterdamen.”

“Dun play games,” Vole snapped, jabbing Tarvek in the chest. “Hyu know vut I iz asking.”

“I don’t...I don’t know exactly what they do,” Tarvek said. He stared into the distance, his gaze hunted. Haunted. “I wasn’t lying about that part. I don’t know how often it happens or where they get the girls or why , but...” He wrapped his arms around himself and swallowed hard. “It was a year ago. I was in the passages one night, and I saw two of the Geisterdamen carrying something wrapped in a sheet, down into the tunnels. I followed them, and when they left, I went down. They’d unwrapped it and left it by the water.

“It was a girl, about my age, and she was...she was dead. I couldn’t see why, she didn’t seem hurt, but her eyes were, were all strange. She didn’t look like she was from Sturmhalten, but I don’t know how they could have...” His grip tightened. “They took her and they did something to her and then they left her body here for the monsters to eat.” His voice was barely a whisper. “Like trash.”

He forced himself to keep going. 

“The way they’d acted with the body, it looked... practiced. Like they were following a procedure. I went down to that spot every night for four months. And one day, I went down, and I found another body. Another girl. Same age. No marks. But they both...they looked scared .”

Agatha felt nauseous and slightly dizzy. She’d been right. She’d been horribly, awfully right, and never in her life had she before so desperately wished she had been wrong. And that could have been her – would have been her, if Vole hadn’t come and Tarvek’s plan to get her out hadn’t worked. It would have been her body lying beside the river for the monsters to take. 

And no one would have ever known what happened. Agatha would have simply vanished, nothing left of her for anyone to find, not even her bones. What would that have done to Saturnus? 

What would it have done to Teodora?  

“ So sad,” Vole said, his icy sarcasm a knife through Agatha’s horror. “I can tell hyu iz very upset about it, so upset hyu dun report it to anyvun.”

“To who?” Tarvek snapped. “ My father? The captain of the guard?”

“Der Baron.”

“ I don’t have any proof ,” Tarvek said. “And my family is very, very good at hiding secrets. And if he did believe me, and he did come down here, when he didn’t find anything, he’d leave and they’d kill me.”

“But you’re his son!” Agatha exclaimed.

Vole snorted.

“Hyu dun pay much attention in hyu classes, do hyu? Dis is de Sturmvoraus family. Dey vould kill each odder over who took der last sausage at breakfast.”

Tarvek did not disagree.

“My father would probably be the one holding the knife,” he said quietly. He grabbed Agatha’s wrist, desperation in every inch of him. “Please. Please, I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want them to, to do whatever it is they do. Please believe me.”

Agatha twisted her wrist out of his grip, but only so she could take his hand and squeeze it tightly.

“I believe you.”

She looked up at Vole, who sighed.

“Fine. But if ve get ambushed und killed, dun hyu come cryink to me about it.”

Chapter Text

After only a few minutes, Agatha understood what Tarvek had meant about the tunnels being a maze. There were dozens of branching paths, some splitting into two or three or even four different passages, all with branches of their own. And they all looked the same, the only variation being that some of them were man-made, paved with ancient brick and mortar, and some of them were simply cracks in the stone foundations of Sturmhalten itself.

Occasionally Tarvek would stop them and tell them to edge around a particular section of the path, or to step only on certain tiles. Once, he took them on a five-minute detour just to come out three meters ahead of where they had been before.

“Trust me,” he said. “You don’t want to risk it.”

Vole snorted.

“Iz like being back in Castle Heterodyne. Except at least dis place dun talk .”

“ Talk?” Tarvek repeated.

“Oh, yes!” Agatha said, eagerly. “When Faustus Heterodyne built the castle, he made—”

“Hey hey hey!” Vole scolded. “Good Mechanicsburg boys und girls dun spill de masters’ secrets.”

Agatha was about to ask why anyone would tell her a secret, when she realized with a start that it was because they were her secrets. Her family’s. How many of the stories Lord Saturnus so casually told her had contained information that people died and killed to protect?

Lord Saturnus. Her grandfather. And she was the Lady of Mechanicsburg. All those things he’d told her about being a ruler ‘just in case they become relevant someday’. All those times he’d impressed on her the duties and privileges of the Heterodynes – good and bad.

She wondered if he’d been trying to tell her, consciously or not. Had he been hoping she’d wonder why he kept talking to her like she was going to be important?

But she hadn’t.

A proper Heterodyne would have been able to figure it out, Agatha was sure.

A high-pitched animal squeal echoed down the tunnel, jerking Agatha from her misery spiral; startled, she grabbed Vole’s hand. He started at the touch and looked down at her in shock. She looked back with much the same expression and quickly let go.

The shock on Vole’s face vanished, a vaguely irritable expression slamming down to hide it. He would not look at her as they walked on.

Tarvek made no comment.

Twice, Tarvek and Agatha had to duck into the shadows so Vole could tear something to pieces. It seemed to be putting him in a very good mood.

Once, they all had to hurry to get up high and out of sight, as a pack of Geisterdamen passed by. It did not put any of them in a good mood.

At last, they reached a ladder leading up into the town. Agatha felt relieved to be out in the fresh air, but her relief did not last long.

“They’ve shut everything down,” Tarvek murmured.

The streets were so silent, the hum of the electric lamps could be heard. Not a single person could be seen. The windows of every house were shuttered tightly; the houses themselves seemed to press in around them. The sun had been setting while they were underground, and though the sky was still bright, Sturmhalten was swallowed by the shadows of the mountains. There was not even the light or sound of the lightning moat to give relief from the suffocating darkness. 

Looming over it all was the bulk of Castle Sturmhalten, dour, austere, unforgiving. Agatha was used to living in a town with large, menacing architecture, but even the shattered remains of Castle Heterodyne looked more welcoming than the stronghold of Balan’s Gap. 

She wondered how much of that was being colored by her present danger, and how much was the knowledge that this place had been built for the sole purpose of keeping her bloodline contained. Or perhaps it was the other way around, and her bloodline made her see Castle Heterodyne with kinder eyes than most.

The silence was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps tramping towards them, and they hurriedly ducked back behind a building as a squad of guards marched by.

“Demn,” Vole hissed. Tarvek let out a strangled sound of frustration and grabbed his hair, pulling hard.

“Arg, of course the guards are looking for you!” he groaned. “I’m such an idiot. My father wouldn’t just let you walk out of town! He doesn’t even have to tell them why he wants them to grab you!”

“So ve—” Vole glanced at Agatha. “ I fight our vay out.”

But Tarvek shook his head.

“Even you can’t fight the entire town militia on your own. You have to take the sewers.”

Agatha barely managed to strangle her cry of disgust.

“Qviet. It could be vorse, trust me.”

“ How?”

“Hyu dun vant to know. No, really. Hyu dun vant to know.”

“This way,” Tarvek said, leading them down the road. They had to hide twice more from the guards before finally reaching a set of stone stairs blocked by a padlocked gate.

“It’s locked!” Agatha whispered, frantic. “What do we do?”

“I’ve got it,” Tarvek said. He knelt down beside the gate and drew from his pocket a small cloth bundle that unrolled to reveal several long, thin pieces of metal bent into strange shapes. Agatha watched in amazement as he carefully selected two and slipped them into the keyhole.

“You can pick locks?”

“We all get the training,” Tarvek said absentmindedly. “A little of it, anyway.” 

“What training?”

“Dey is trained like der Smoke Knights,” Vole said, curling his lip. “Hiding in der shadows und sneaking around killink people behind deir backs.”

“Smoke Knights – you mean like the Storm King had?”

“I am a direct descendent,” Tarvek said proudly, without looking up from his task. “I—”

“Der blood of der Lightning Crown flows through hyu veins, blah blah blah,” Vole interrupted, rolling his eyes. “Dun get him started. Dese royal types neffer shut up about dis shtuff.”

Tarvek’s mouth thinned in annoyance, but there was a soft, metallic clunk and the padlock clicked open.  

“One last thing,” he said, rising and tucking his lockpicks back into an inner pocket of his jacket. “Captain, I need you to hit me.”

Instantly, Vole drew back a fist.

“No!” Agatha grabbed his wrist with both hands, though she knew she’d do little more than throw him off balance. “Are you crazy?” she demanded of Tarvek, who only sighed.

“I can’t get back through the tunnels on my own. You saw how many monsters were down there, not to mention the Geisterdamen. I’m going to tell them that you forced me to help, and if I want them to believe me, it has to actually look like it.”

“Just come with us,” Agatha begged. Tarvek shook his head.

“That’ll make it worse. It’s okay,” he assured her.

“But—”

Tarvek gave her a sad smile. “Agatha. I’ll be fine.” 

Agatha released Vole’s arm and glared at him.

“Non-lethally. No permanent damage.”

Vole rolled his eyes mightily and slapped Tarvek open-palmed across the face. He didn't draw his hand back very far or put any apparent force into the blow, but Tarvek’s head snapped to the side, his glasses went flying, and he dropped like a rock. Agatha clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle her gasp, and hurriedly knelt down next to him.

Tarvek’s eyes were flickering oddly, and a trickle of blood oozed from a split lip.

“Tarvek?”

“I thhink I nneed to tuuake a nnap nowww,” he slurred.

Agatha cast around until she located Tarvek’s glasses. She picked them up and winced – one of the lenses had cracked. Very delicately, she folded them up and tucked them into his pocket. Then, unable to stop herself, she pressed a kiss to his cheek. 

Turning bright red, Agatha fled down the stairs without looking back. Vole rolled his eyes again and followed her, pausing to pull the gate shut and lock the padlock behind them.

They walked in suffocating, stinking silence for several minutes. If Agatha kept her shirt over her nose and breathed through her mouth, she could just about stand it without being sick. There was, blessedly, a little path on either side of the…liquid running down the center of the tunnel. Agatha could just about see where to put her feet, thanks to the glowing moss that clung to the walls in thick, slimy-looking clumps. 

She tried very, very hard not to think about where they were or what was in the drain they were following – but the only other thing she could think about was Tarvek. 

It wasn’t her fault he wouldn’t let her protect him, she knew that. All the same, Agatha could not shake the guilt. Tarvek had tried to help her, even when it meant going against his father and risking his life, and she’d left him behind to suffer the consequences.

“Hyu can alvays come back for him later,” Vole said.

“What?”

“I said, hyu can alvays come back for him later.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Hyu is tinking about him so loud I can feel it.”

Agatha tried to ignore her own blush. “Not if they kill him for helping us.” 

Vole waved a dismissive hand.

“Dot’s easy, hyu just dig him up und bring him back.”

“I...don’t think they’d let me.”

“Pfft. Hyu vill be de Lady of Mechanicsburg. How vill dey stop hyu?”

Agatha said nothing. Once again, she was very aware that Vole had wanted her father and uncle dead for the crime of not being bloodthirsty monsters. Was Vole under the impression that she would be like her grandfather, because he had helped raise her? If she said she had no intention of razing Europa to the ground for fun, would he kill her on the spot?

“No,” Vole said, though she had not spoken. “I vill not kill hyu for not being like hyu grandpoppa. He vants hyu home safe, und I vill bring hyu to him. Dot iz de shtart und end of my interest in hyu.”

“How m – uh, angry is he?” she asked.

“How vould I know?”

“Couldn’t you tell, when you talked to him?”

“I neffer talked to him.”

“You said he asked you to come get me!”

“I said I vas here to bring hyu home for him. No vun asked me to do it.” His voice changed, soft but emphatic, as though reassuring himself of something. “He din’ need to ask. Hy alvays know vut he vants. Dot’s vy Hy iz…”

Agatha waited, and when he did not continue, prodded gently.

“Why you’re what?”

“Vy I iz here to get hyu,” Vole snapped. “Because I know he cares about hyu. Yez, der keedz vuz veak, but Lord Saturnus vuz strong. He iz a proper Heterodyne.”

“He said it was his fault.”

Vole stopped dead.

Agatha backed away a few steps, but no further – she would rather be torn apart by an angry ex-Jäger than get lost in a sewer. Vole turned his head, not enough for her to see his expression but enough that he could see her from the corner of his massive eyes, slivers of liquid black even in the shadows.

“He said…” She tried to remember his exact words. It had been years ago, and she’d never asked again. “He said you had every right to want us dead, after what he’d done to you. He wouldn’t say what it was he did, just that he didn’t want to talk about it again.”

Vole looked ahead again.

“Dot iz vut he tinks,” he said, more statement than question. 

“Yes,” she said. Vole said nothing. “What happened?”

“Qvestion time iz over now,” Vole snapped, abruptly moving forward again. “Iz valk qvietly und mind hyu own business time.”

Agatha bit her tongue, more curious than ever. It didn’t make any sense . Her grandfather had a lot to say about traitors and what should be done to them, and had a rather extreme blind spot when it came to his role in the consequences of his actions. Yet here was someone who had committed the greatest treachery imaginable, and Saturnus claimed fault for himself without hesitation.

“Maybe you two could discuss it when we get back.”

“No. Ven ve get to der gate, hyu go home alone. I haff vork to do.”

“You’re avoiding him.”

“I iz not. I haff nottink to say.”

“So it is his fault.”

“I did not say dot.”

“Then you don’t think it’s his fault? I’m sure he’d like to know that—”

Vole whirled around, teeth bared and face twisted in fury and frustration and…pain?

“Stop it!” he snarled. “Hyu keep out of dis! Hyu dun have any idea vut hyu iz talkink about!”

“Of course I don’t! No one will tell me what happened!”

“Because ve dun vant to talk about it, so stop. Askink.”

He turned his back on her and stomped away into the stinking darkness. Agatha followed, her own annoyance growing.

“So does this mean you are still loyal to the family, or are you just going to wait until my grandfather dies before you try to crush me?”

“I iz not loyal to de family , I iz...I haz respect for de Lord Heterodyne. I iz not going to kill hyu, because I dun care about hyu. Ven hyu iz de Heterodyne, de Jägers vill come back, und der Baron vill assign me to a new post.”

“And that’s it?”

Vole stopped suddenly again, but this time it was because they had reached an outlet from the sewers. It was barred, but the bars were rust-eaten. Vole wrapped his hands around one and pulled, and easily snapped it free. He tossed it aside and grabbed another.

“You’re going to avoid each other for the rest of his life?”

“Dere iz nottink to talk about,” he said, and snapped the next bar off.

“Obviously there is! He thinks it's his fault, and you don’t! Why wouldn’t you want him to know that?”

Vole grabbed the metal frame that held the bars and with a snarl of effort, ripped the whole thing right out of the stone mouth of the tunnel. He dropped it to the ground, glared at Agatha, and pointed meaningfully outside. 

Glaring right back, Agatha stomped out into the sweet-smelling twilight, turned around, and put her fists on her hips.

“What if I never become the Heterodyne?” she demanded. “What then?”

Vole, who was clearly trying to decide if his formerly impeccably clean and very white uniform was ruined enough that wiping the rust off his hands onto it would not make it that much worse, froze mid-step.

“Vut?”

“Why do you think I’m running away?” she asked. “I only just found out I’m – who I am. You must have heard that I’m an idiot.”

“Der pipple of Mechanicsburg von’t care. Dey vould take a fish in a clank suit if der kestle told dem it vuz a Heterodyne.”

“I care!” Agatha exclaimed. “How am I supposed to fix the castle? I tried to build a self-propelling chair and ended up in the hospital!” Tears filled her eyes. “I’m not even a Spark! I get headaches when I think too hard—!”

“Dot doesn’t sound like shtupid,” Vole said, without sympathy. “Dot sounds like hyu got trouble vit hyu head. Headaches dun make hyu shtupid, being shtupid makes hyu shtupid.”

Agatha, her self-abusing rant completely derailed, stood open-mouthed.

“I…I never really thought about it like that,” she said at last.

“Vell, tink about it on der vay home.” Vole pointed down the road. The light of carriage lanterns were winking in and out of view through the leaves of the trees, heading in their direction. “Dot iz coming down from Mechanicsburg vay. I vill reqvisition it in de Baron’s name und ve vill go home. Hyu get to explain hyuself to hyu grandpoppa, und hyu leave me out of it.”

“You don’t even want me to tell him you helped?” Agatha exclaimed.

“No. I dun vant him to tink…” Vole shook his head. “Before der Baron sent me to Mechanicsburg, he asked me if I vuz still loyal to der family in any vay. I told him no. If he hears dot I did dis, he might tink I vuz lying.”

“Were you?”

“No,” Vole lied. 

“Then—”

“Maybe hyu just be grateful I came und saved hyu und ve leave it at dot,” Vole snapped, and without another word led the way towards the road. Agatha risked a glance over her shoulder. All that could be seen of Sturmhalten from here was the very top of the castle, the light from the lightning moat flickering like the dance of sunlight underwater.

Abruptly, it went out. The castle vanished into the darkness as if it had blinked out of existence. Only the flashing red dot of the airship safety light at the tower’s top gave any sign it was still there. 

Agatha shivered, and hurried after Vole.

Chapter Text

The lights on the road turned out to be attached to a solid-sided cart drawn by two horses. On the side, in big red letters, it said Hetty the Eggler. Below that, in neat black font: chicken, duck, quail – and that’s a guarantee! Hetty herself – a zaftig woman with tightly coiled black hair – eyed them suspiciously, but drew the horses to a halt.

“Can I help you?” Her eyes flicked to Vole’s hat, and she added with only the faintest touch of contempt, “Sir?”

“On behalf of de Empire I iz commandeering hyu cart. Hyu vill turn around und return to Mechanicsburg.”

“Please,” Agatha added. Hetty, eyes narrowed and clearly ready to tell Vole where he could stick his empire, paused and closed her mouth. She looked the two of them over.  

“The hell happened to you two?” she demanded.

“None of hyu business,” Vole said, at the same time Agatha said, “The Prince of Sturmhalten—”

Agatha cut off when Vole growled at her, but Hetty’s eyes grew hard, and then softened. She sighed.  

“Fine.” She turned in her seat and, to Agatha’s confusion, thumped her fist on the side of the cart. “Up and at ‘em, boys, I’ve been commandeered. I’m headed back to Mechanicsburg.”  

“Hyu’z been vut?”said a voice, and a head popped up into view, shedding pieces of dried straw.  

A head with green skin. 

A head with eyes that reflected the light like a cat’s.

A head with green skin and tapeta lucida and big, sharp teeth.

“Uh oh,” Agatha whispered as Vole tensed beside her.

Another head popped out, this one almost human-looking, save the fangs that poked out from behind closed lips and the single curling horn on the side of his head.

“Vut’z goink on?” 

A third head poked out, purple the way the Geisterdamen were white, right down to his eyes. When this one saw them, his mouth split into a massive, fangy smile of pure delight.

“Vole!” he cried.

Vole hissed a word that had nearly gotten Saturnus sent to his room the one time he’d said it around Agatha.

“Hyu old veasel-eater, vut iz hyu doink here? Hey, dot’s a nize hat!”

For the merest flash of a second, there was a smile on Vole's face. It vanished as quickly as it came. 

“I’z on Empire business,” Vole said. “Ve needs to get to Mechanicsburg right avay.”

“What you need is a change of clothes,” Hetty said. “You two smell like a sewer.”

“Clothes!” Agatha yelped. “Oh no, I left my bag back in—oh, I didn’t even think about it!” She looked back, as if there was any possible way she could somehow return to Sturmhalten to get it. Vole grabbed her shoulders and dragged her around to face him, his grip too tight and his eyes furious.

“Vut else vuz in dere?” he asked sharply.

“What?” she said, startled by the burning anger in his eyes. 

“Vuz dere anyting vit hyu name on it? A book, hyu papers, anyting.”

“I…I don’t know, why—?”

“If dey haff hyu name, dey could use to find out who hyu iz.” He lowered his voice and growled, “Dey know who I iz takink hyu to.”  

Agatha’s heart turned to ice and slammed into the pit of her stomach. Vole had said he was taking her to her grandfather.

And Agatha Sannikova lived with Saturnus Heterodyne.

She thought hard, trying to keep straight what was actual memory and what was horrified imagining. She’d brought a couple of books. Did they have her name in them? Did she ever put her name in her books? She owned a few books that had been gifts, those had notes written inside the cover…but she hadn’t brought them. The guilt had stung too hard when she’d looked at them.

“No,” she said. Then, more confidently, “No, nothing.” She hesitated. “I…I don’t think.”

Vole scowled, but let her go. He pointed at Hetty.

“Turn dis around, right now.”

“Vole, vut’s goink on?” The purple Jäger was looking really worried now, and so did the horned Jäger. The green Jäger was less worried, and more very, very suspicious.   

“The Prince of Sturmhalten tried to kill me,” Agatha said, bluntly.

“Vould hyu—!” Vole began, but Agatha glared at him, her hands balling into fists. 

“Why shouldn’t they know? I want people to know! I want everyone to know! The Prince of Sturmhalten has been kidnapping girls and killing them, and he got away with it because it was a secret!”

“Dis iz vut Hy vuz talking about!” the horned Jäger said to Hetty, gesturing to Agatha. “At least vit de old masters, hyu knew!”

The other two Jägers nodded, expressions solemn. Hetty sighed.

“Alright, hun, let’s get you home. First thing, though…” Hetty stood. She lifted up the driver’s seat she’d been on and dug around in the storage compartment below it, finally drawing out a pale yellow dress and a small sack. Hetty shook the contents of the sack – crumpled-up clothing, presumably laundry – into the compartment, and shut the lid.

In a businesslike manner that reminded Agatha a little of Teodora, Hetty issued orders.

“This is clean. You go into the bushes over there, get changed, and put your clothes in here. Cut the sewer smell at least in half. I am going to turn the cart around. You four, stand on the other side of the road and look the other way. I can see you boys eyeballing each other – if you’re going to fight, get it out of the way now, off of the cart that I rely on for transporting my livelihood.”

“Heh,” said Maxim, giving Agatha a saucy grin. “Hyu sure hyu don’t vant some—”

“Fifteen,” Vole said flatly.

“—ting a leedle varmer den dot?” Maxim finished, smoothly shifting his expression to one of polite interest. “Is a chilly night for der short sleeves.”

“I run warm,” Hetty said apologetically to Agatha, who realized the woman wasn’t even wearing a coat.

Maxim swung himself over the side of the cart. Agatha was somehow not surprised to see the rest of his clothes were purple, including his cloak. She wondered if it was because he liked the color or because he liked to match. The others – quickly introduced as Dimo and Ognian – were wearing outfits chosen for durability, with little to no care for appearance. Maxim, on the other hand, was dressed like the dashing cavalier in a stage play. 

Maxim undid the clasp of his cloak and passed it to Agatha. She took it, politely thanked him, and hurried off into the bushes as Hetty took the cart further down the road to find a place wide enough for her to turn.  

It was a chilly night, and it raised goosebumps on her bare skin as she undressed. Shivering, she tried to move quickly without losing her footing on the leaf-strewn ground.    

Though she was on the other side of the road, it was a still and quiet night, and Agatha could easily hear the Jägers' conversation. She told herself it was rude to eavesdrop, but she couldn't help it. It was her first look at real Jägers, and she wanted to see if they were the boisterous, good-humored neighbors Mechanicsburg knew them as, or the nightmares Europa still feared and hated. 

"Vere did hyu go?" Maxim asked Vole. 

"Vut hyu mean, vere?" 

Agatha desperately wanted to be dressed, but she couldn't stop herself from leaning over to peer through the bush next to hers, where the branches were spaced more widely apart. 

"Hyu vuz chust gone vun day! De generals could only say it vuz a matter for de masters und Master Saturnus vouldn't say!" 

Agatha would bet anything none of them had been brave enough to ask Bill or Barry. Hard to have a pleasant conversation with someone who wished you didn't exist, let alone an unpleasant one.   

"Dere vuz plenty ov rumors," Dimo said. Agatha wished she could see their expressions in the gloom, but all she had was moonlight, and could barely even make out their body language: tense. 

" Lots of dem," Maxim agreed. "Dot hyu vuz dead, dot hyu vuz on a secret mission, dot hyu ran avay, dot hyu—" 

"Dot hyu broke de Jägertroth." Agatha could practically hear the icicles hanging off Dimo's words. 

"Hy neffer—!" Vole snarled, and caught himself. "Iz…complicated." 

"Complicated how." 

Agatha, recognizing the dark clouds of a fight beginning to form on the horizon, ducked back and pulled the dress over her head. She immediately got stuck with only her head and one arm free.   

"Dimo," Maxim said, putting a hand on the green Jäger's shoulder. Dimo shoved his hand away and stepped forward. He was a head shorter than Vole, but did not seem in any way intimidated by the height difference. 

"Dere iz nottink complicated about beink a Jäger. Hyu iz or hyu izn't." 

"Oh, like how hyu tree iz still Jägers?" 

In the stunned silence, Agatha struggled until she heard a seam pop, and was able to get the dress all the way down. 

"Vot's dot supposed to mean?" Maxim asked, sounding worried and hurt. 

"Hyu left because der Baron told hyu to. De troth says—" 

" Hy know vut it says!" It came out less like words and more like an animal snarl in the back of Dimo's throat. The next came out in the tight tones of someone barely maintaining their temper. "De pack iz vorking for der Baron becawz dey have to, und ve iz looking for a Heterodyne." 

Agatha hurried to brush the dirt off her feet and jam them back into her boots.

"Hyu already have vun," Vole growled, "und hyu left him behind. If de Jägertroth izn't broken, it sure got a big demn hole in it!" 

It was Ognian who let out the roar and threw himself at Vole. The captain grabbed him by the front of the coat and used Ognian's own momentum against him, hurling him into Maxim and sending them both tumbling into the ditch on the side of the road. 

"Heh," Vole said, but whatever clever remark he was going to make was lost when Dimo tackled him to the ground. 

Agatha wrapped the cloak around her shoulders and came charging out of the bushes. 

"Stop! Stop it!" 

Vole punched Dimo in the face, knocking him back. Dimo caught Vole's arm before it could be withdrawn and twisted it until Vole let out a snarl of pain. Vole's free hand went to Dimo's face, claws seeking his eyes. Ognian began to scramble out of the ditch, one foot on the road.  

"I. Said. STOP." 

The word seemed to echo, the reverberation hitting the Jägers like a freeze ray and catching them in an almost comical tableau. Very slowly, Maxim's head rose into view, just high enough to see. 

Agatha drew herself up, trying to imitate Teodora - and realized they would probably respond better to Saturnus. She turned on a furious glare and spoke in a voice as much warning as an order. 

"I need his help to get back to Mechanicsburg. If you four want to tear each other to pieces, do it on your own time!" 

Jäger and ex-Jäger alike got up off the ground or out of the ditch. For a moment, they were all huddled together like school children waiting for the teacher's scolding. Vole realized what he was doing and took a step away, folding his arms over his chest. The others didn’t notice. 

“I am called Agatha Sannikova. Vole is taking me back to my grandfather.” She took a deep breath. There was no undoing what she was about to do, but it needed to be done. “And the answer to your question is yes.” 

They all looked at Vole, who hunched his shoulders. 

“I said it vuz complicated,” he groused. 

“De generals said—” Ognian started. 

"Like de generals iz gonna tell hyu und hyu big mouth anyting ," Vole said with a sneer. 

Did the generals know? Or did Vole not know they didn't know? Agatha realized she had no idea how big a secret she was. She couldn't be the only one who didn't know, surely. And yet, it was hard to believe the people of Mechanicsburg would be able to treat their Heterodyne like that, even in the name of protecting her. 

Or maybe that was why they treated her that way – angry and frustrated with the disappointing failure of a Heterodyne they were stuck with. 

The muffled crack of a short, sharp explosion rang through the air. 

"Gunshot," Vole said immediately. "Ve go, now." 

"What about Hetty?" Agatha said. Vole grabbed her wrist and dragged her down the road. 

"Dot probably vuz her. Vill take dem a long time to search all der tunnels. Der Prince vould vant to send soldiers in case ve already got out. Und dey dun need to vander through der sewers." 

Another shot, and another, getting closer, and Agatha's heart leapt at the thundering of hooves. Hetty came whipping around the turn in the road, half-standing, fumbling with something in her arms. Moments later, a group of mounted guards in the Sturmhalten uniform came thundering into view. 

Hetty stood up, braced something that appeared to be a small siege weapon against her shoulder, and fired. One of the guards fell and, tangled in his reins, pulled the horse with him. The guard behind him could not turn in time, and with a scream from horse and rider, crashed to the ground. 

The sound twisted Agatha's guts and she looked away quickly, squeezing her eyes shut against the sight. 

Someone grabbed her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. She yelped and opened her eyes. Hetty, weapon on her lap, leaned over, arm outstretched as she approached. Agatha was half-tossed, half-dragged onto the seat behind Hetty. 

"Keep your head down," the woman ordered. Agatha realized the back of the seat had grown a meter and a half higher. Gunshots rang out, and she shrieked and ducked as the salvo hit. She heard the impact of the bullets behind her – but instead of tearing through the wood, she heard the sound of metal striking metal. 

"Bulletproof," Hetty called over the pounding hooves and rattling cart. 

" What?" 

"My family were all smugglers before the Baron moved in!" She gave Agatha a wild grin. "I've been running from the law since before I could walk! Hold these." 

She shoved the reins into Agatha's hands and pulled a lever on what appeared to be the missing evolutionary step between crossbow and gun.  There was a clunk, and a ring of sharp bolts jutted out from within the muzzle. Hetty caught Agatha looking and her grin grew wider. 

"Isn't she a beaut? My girlfriend built it for me!" Putting fingers to lips, Hetty whistled sharply and bellowed, "Scatter shot!" 

"Scatter what? Wait, wait, I can't drive a carriage, I don't know how!" 

"You're not driving, just hold the reins for me! The girls know what they're doing!"

Hetty once more swung up and over the backboard. She pulled the trigger. The chunk of the firing mechanism loosed, the whistle of the bolts in the air, a chorus of screams of pain and fear. 

Agatha shuddered as Hetty dropped back down. 

"If you're going to heave, aim between the horses," Hetty instructed. "Don't stick your head out where they can see you. Hey. Look at me." 

She put a hand on Agatha's shoulder. Her eyes were solemn, but understanding. 

"It's them or you, and they started it. That matters." 

Agatha nodded, but all the same was grateful when the sounds of pursuit faded into the distance. They drove hard until they broke free of the forest and onto a road that curled around the steep edges of the mountain. Hetty pulled the reins and the horses slowed to a trot, then a walk. 

"Keep an eye behind us, shout if you see them come out. I have to watch the road." 

Agatha nodded and turned in her seat, staring back at the mouth of the forest. In her mind, she could still hear the screaming of the horses. She tried to drown it out. 

Them or me and they started it. Them or me and they started it. Them or me and they started it. 

How dare they. 

How dare they how dare they how dare they how dare they how dare they howdaretheyhowdaretheyHOWDARETHEYHOWDARETHEYHOWDA

Four figures came racing out of the woods – familiar ones. Agatha sagged in relief. 

"The Jägers are back. And Vole," she added, judiciously. Hetty let out a sigh of relief and pulled the horses to a stop. 

"Is he not a Jäger?" she asked in a whisper. 

"It's complicated," Agatha replied. "And he really doesn't like to talk about it." 

"Duly noted." 

The Jagers were fast, and caught up quickly. They did not seem to have taken any damage from the fight. 

"Dot's dem taken care of," Dimo said, and Agatha could tell he was trying to sound cheerful and carefree. She wondered if it was for her, or for Hetty. "Ve dragged der bodies off der road, but if dey is lookink hard it von't hide dem long." 

"Dere vill be more," Vole said grimly. 

"Den iz a good ting ve found hyu ven ve did," Ognian said. "Ve ken go vit hyu–" 

" No," Vole growled. "Go avay. I dun need hyu help." 

"It would be suspicious," Agatha said regretfully. The Jägers looked at her like she'd kicked them. "I'm Lady Teodora's ward ," Agatha said. "I spend half my life telling people I'm not a Heterodyne. If I have a guard of three Jägers following me around, no one will…believe…me…" 

Agatha trailed off. Her eyes flicked back and forth, unseeing, as she thought. Part of her was startled at how quickly those thoughts were, and how easy it was to keep up with them. Connections and ideas and flaws in plans and suitable solutions raced by – and she saw and understood every single one of them. 

She felt…strange. Good strange. But strange.

Agatha looked back at the Jägers, and was not aware of how easily she caught them with her eyes, moths to a shining green flame. 

"I'll be safe once I get to Mechanicsburg, but I'm not the only person in danger. Prince Sturmvoraus has been killing girls like me for at least two years, and he's gotten away with it because Tarvek doesn't have any proof. I need proof. I have to find a way to make sure he can't do this again." 

Agatha tried not to glance at Hetty. That would make it look like she was hiding something. Which she was. 

"Can I ask you to go to Sturmhalten, and make sure Tarvek is okay, and find something that proves all of this?" 

It was a genuine question. She wasn't the Heterodyne, technically. Certainly she couldn't order them, but maybe, if she asked politely…?

The Jägers looked at each other…and grinned. To her surprise, they were real, genuine grins of excitement and pleasure. 

"Ya, ve can do dot, no problem!" Dimo said. 

"Dis Tarvek, vut's he look like?" Ognian asked. 

"He's the prince's son. My height, glasses, bright red hair—"

"He is a Shtorm Lord spawn," Vole said. "Hyu vill know him ven hyu see him." 

The Jägers dug around in the straw and retrieved a three-bladed halberd, a very fine saber in a fancy scabbard, and a bandolier of throwing knives.

"Hyu keep dot," Maxim said, nodding at his cape. "Hy vill come get it later ven Hy get back, ya? Und hey." He punched Vole on the arm in a friendly way. "Vuz good to see hyu."  

With that, the Jägers took off back the way they came. Vole didn't move right away. He stood very still, staring after them with an odd, unsettled expression. 

"Idiot," he muttered under his breath. Then, loudly, "Let's go." 

Agatha, at Hetty's insistence, crawled into the back of the wagon with Vole. She curled up in the hay and wrapped herself in Maxim's cloak. Her last thought, as she drifted off, was that she hoped the Jägers could tell she liked them. 

The Jägers had not stayed on the road, choosing instead the cover of the forest. They stayed close enough to see the road, but deep enough to not be easily spotted themselves. They flitted through the trees like shadows, quick darting movements that rustled no leaf or snapped even a single twig. In fact, they made no sound at all. 

Except for the arguing. 

" How iz hyu friends vit dot guy?" Dimo demanded.  

"Hyu just got to get to know him!" Maxim insisted. "He'z a liddle prickly on de outside, but on de inside he's not so bad." 

" Not so bad, boy, hyu iz really sellink it, Maxim. All Hy haff to do is spend lots ov time vit a guy Hy dun like, und eventually, Hy vill not like him a liddle bit less." 

"Who cares about Vole?" Ognian said. "Ve got's a real Heterodyne again! Und she likes us!" 

"She sent us avay," Dimo said. She hadn't even hesitated, either. They'd barely gotten the words out before she told them no. 

"Ya, to go on a big important mission! She trusts us!" Ognian insisted. 

It was true. She hadn't hesitated about that , either. Not can I trust you to. Not will you. Not even can you . 

Can I ask you to. Because while she hadn't been sure she counted yet, with the bell yet unrung, she knew they could and would do anything for their Heterodyne.  

He grinned.  

And she wanted them to. 

Chapter Text

It had taken two months for Teodora to wear Saturnus down enough that he consented to her living outside of the castle, and another month of ferocious negotiation and compromise to agree on where. The house would be no more than fifteen minutes’ walk from the castle, countdown beginning at the foot of the hill, not the front door. Teodora would come to dinner at the castle every night, lunch every other day, breakfast every other Thursday. Saturnus could visit, but must send notice at least one hour prior to his arrival or, preferably, schedule in advance. 

Saturnus had cheerfully evicted the previous tenants, delayed Teodora’s move with a few “necessary renovations”, and presented it to her with great ceremony. She knew Saturnus would have preferred to build her a small palace, but he had, for once, restrained himself, and left the house a comfortable two-story home. 

The back garden had always been her haven. Shielded from the sight and sound of Mechanicsburg by a large hedge, she had made it a place of beauty and growing things, untouched by mad science. When the walls pressed in too close, when helplessness threatened to turn to despair, when she thought too much about the life she could have had and all that had been ripped from her, when she couldn’t speak for fear she would start screaming and never stop, here she could find peace. 

And she needed that peace, now. Every waking moment this week she had spent out in the garden, the back door to the house open so she could see the front door, when Agatha came home. 

If she came home. 

By the third day, Teodora had run out of things to do, and began to dig up her flowers and replant them in other parts of the garden, simply for something to do. The alternative was to sit inside and stare at the door. 

“Teodora.” 

She looked up. Saturnus was in the doorway, his face in shadow. For a moment, she couldn’t figure out why, and then realized it was because night had fallen and the lights in the house were behind him. 

“Supper’s almost ready.” 

Teodora rose to her feet, mechanically stripping off her gardening gloves. She dropped the gloves in the basket of tools, unable to muster the effort to put them away properly. As she approached, Saturnus backed the wheelchair up and moved further into the kitchen. Tucked away as it was in the back of the house, under the stairs, it was a gloomy little space rarely occupied except when cooking. Saturnus had filled it with the greatest Spark-built appliances he could get his hands on, some of which Teodora actually used. 

They had taken turns making sure the other ate, whichever one of them was slightly less consumed by worry and fear and guilt and able to remember they occupied physical shells. Saturnus himself did not have much experience in cooking, but he could follow instructions and reach the oven, and had not yet turned up anything completely inedible.  

“Pass me the kettle, would you, love?” Saturnus asked. Teodora absentmindedly moved the heavy iron kettle from the back burner of the stove to the front, and walked into the front hall to get out of his way.  

The front hall had only a wall on the right side; the left opened directly into the dining room, which kept it from feeling too cramped. Teodora went to the long oval table and took away one of the chairs to give Saturnus a place at the table. 

She always liked to sit with her back to the window, and Bill and Barry had meticulously tracked and traded turns sitting next to her, even when Bill was Lord of Mechanicsburg. Agatha always preferred to sit across from her, so she could look Teodora in the eye as they ate. 

The back wall of the dining room had two doors – a small downstairs bathroom, and the bedroom that had once been Barry’s, now Saturnus’. 

“Barry’s room,” Saturnus repeated. “You want me - me - to move into Barry’s old room, in your house.”

“It’s the only bedroom on the first floor,. ” Teodora said. “The stairs may not be as bad a climb as the road to the castle, but it would be better for your heart if you didn’t have to go up and down every day.” 

It had seemed prescient after the first stroke took his legs, and then pointless after the second took his mind. Now it was useful again: while Saturnus hated the wheelchair and refused to use it outside the house, it was easy enough to wheel himself from the bed to the table without being too injurious to his pride. 

Teodora turned away, wandering from room to room, seeing ghosts in every corner.

Across the hall, through an open doorway, was the sitting room, with a brightly patterned carpet, comfortable chairs and sofas, and a small table for tea. She had passed many sunny afternoons and quiet evenings with her sons, and then her granddaughter, reading or working on her embroidery. There was a shelf on the wall dedicated to Agatha’s clocks. Whether they functioned or not, her creations were always works of art. 

Teodora climbed the narrow stairs to the second floor, which had been divided more or less equally into an oversized, ornate bathroom and three bedrooms: her room, the guest room, and Bill’s room. 

Agatha’s room, now, since the night Barry had arrived with the sleeping girl in his arms. 

Teodora leaned against the doorjamb and stared in. Agatha had been so guarded, at first, almost incapable of believing this would be a permanent home. Now she’d made her mark on it. The line drawings of airships had been replaced by an oil painting of a clank walking through a sun-drenched forest. Agatha had packed away the toy soldiers and monsters and put up her most functional alarm clocks and her model clanks and Princess Stompyboots, because Agatha was old enough to pretend she didn’t sleep with stuffed animals anymore. 

“I was going to ask Punch and Judy to take her, and Beetle to keep an eye on the three of them. Tarsus has his flaws, but he’s trustworthy and he keeps his word - but now he’s given his word to Klaus. ”

“Barry, Mechanicsburg is just as much a part of the Empire as Beetleburg! Even if he answers to Klaus, Tarsus is the Tyrant! Punch and Judy could give her anonymity, Beetle can give his protection - what can I do to protect her that he can’t? The Jägers and the people of Mechanicsburg could keep her safe, but you don’t want any of them to know!   I have no power here, I never have!” 

“You do. You’re Teodora Vodenicharova. You kept me and Bill safe from the whole world, all by yourself. The locket will…will convince people, and you’ll take care of her. Just like you took care of us. When the time comes, I’ll tell her everything, but until then…I can’t think of anywhere safer she could be.”    

She should have insisted. Teodora turned abruptly and hurried down the stairs to stand blankly in the front hall, twisting her fingers together to keep them from shaking. 

Teodora knew, she had always known, from the very first moment, that she should have made Barry take Agatha to Beetleburg. 

In fact, part of Teodora was hoping Agatha would make it to Beetleburg. There, she could be a Spark, too far from Mechanicsburg and from Teodora’s home for anyone to think her a Heterodyne. 

But Teodora had never been strong enough to send her away. 

They ate dinner in silence. Afterwards, Teodora cleared the table and did the dishes and then stood in the kitchen staring blankly out the dark window, wondering if she would ever feel like there was a right choice to make. 

“—dora?”

“What?” She started, realizing Saturnus had been speaking.

“I said, I think you should reconsider letting me tell her when she gets home.”

“Oh, Saturnus!” Teodora scolded, sweeping past him and into the dining room again.   

“I understand your reasoning, but this is not going to go away!” he insisted. “Even once she’s back, the underlying issue remains! She knows she’s a Heterodyne, but she doesn’t know about the locket! She thinks she will fail! That is what she is running from, and it will still be here, waiting for her, if we don’t tell her the truth! If we tell her that the locket is suppressing her spark, then she won’t be afraid!”

Teodora did understand. She understood enough that she felt she might be torn in two. 

If they didn’t tell her, Agatha would be crushed under the weight of expectations she did not know she could exceed.

If they did tell her, Agatha would refuse to wear the locket. She would reveal herself too soon, and the world would come for her, and they would be able to do nothing to protect her.

“What if taking it off all at once does something to her? But if we do it slowly, will that do something? And how could we do it? If she wears it every other day, will that make it better or worse? Neither of us knows how it works!” 

“I could figure it out!” 

“Are you sure?” she demanded. “Are you absolutely sure? Do you know, definitely, without doubt, that if you disconnect the wrong wire it won’t leave her catatonic?” 

“I—–” 

“ Can you?” 

“I am just as strong as Spark as I ever was! There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to figure it out. He’s my son , not a God Queen.”

“Would you bet her life on it?”  

Saturnus opened his mouth, and closed it again. His jaw went tight, his hands white knuckled on the arms of the wheelchair. He glared at her, eyes like green fire. 

But he did not say yes. 

“Barry built it. Barry understands how it works. When he comes home, he will tell me what to do with it, but until then—–” 

“And how long will that be? It’s been four years, Teodora, what if he nev—” 

“ Don’t!” Teodora whirled, teeth bared, blood boiling, mind screaming as if Saturnus could somehow speak the nightmare into existence. “Do. Not. Say. It.” 

Saturnus didn’t answer – but he didn’t have to. It was in his eyes: he didn’t want it to be true any more than she did, but he was willing to accept it. It only made her angrier. Of course he could accept it. There had been a time when he had planned to kill Barry himself – kill him and ‘start over’, as if Barry was nothing more than a failed experiment. The fact that he had the gall to be sad at the thought of Barry…of Barry… 

“Right now, she is stable ,” Teodora said. “Stable, and safe, and I do not know how fragile that may be. So I will continue to do what I know will work, until I am certain – absolutely certain – that any other option won’t make it worse. ” 

The door opened.

Agatha, eyes downcast, slipped inside and quietly pushed the door shut behind her. She was wearing a poorly-fitting yellow dress and a long purple cape, and stood in her socks, her shoes nowhere to be seen.

“I lost my bag,” she said, not looking up. “I had to borrow a change of clothes, and um. I left my boots outside because they got all gross from…from the mud.” 

She swallowed hard. 

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Teodora let out a cry and threw herself across the room, dragging Agatha into her arms.

“I’m sorry,” Agatha said again, burying her face in Teodora’s shoulder.

“No,” Teodora said, her voice shaking. “No, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. This isn’t how I wanted you to find out, I…”

“I understand why you didn’t tell me,” Agatha said, softly. “Better I don’t know what I…” She pulled in a shuddering breath and her voice trembled. “What I can’t be.”

Something in Teodora shattered.

“That is not why!” Saturnus burst out. He wheeled himself across the room and grabbed Agatha’s wrists tightly, pulling her away from Teodora to face him. “You listen to me, girl. This was too big a secret for a child to keep, and you are a terrible liar. Every person who knows is a person who could slip up, and the second anyone even suspected you might be who you are, you would be in unimaginable danger. Do you understand?”

“I haven’t even done anything!” Agatha exclaimed.

Teodora numbly wandered over to the china cabinet where she had stored the locket. Saturnus had said it was too dangerous for a non-Spark to hold for more than a few hours, and now it lay nestled among the cloth napkins in the top drawer.

“You exist,” Saturnus told Agatha sadly. “That’s enough. Some people will try to kill you in case you are like me. Some people will try to kill you in case you are like your father. Some people will want you dead for revenge. Others will want to control you, use you for their own ends.”

“Even if I’m a useless Heterodyne? One who isn’t even a Spark?”

Tears began to well up in Teodora’s eyes as she stared down at the trilobite locket, indistinguishable from so many other Heterodyne sigils, even from the bric-a-brac the tourists bought. She tried to strengthen her resolve, as she always did, by forcing herself to relive that day. 

The fear in her heart when the castle began to fall to pieces. Fighting her way through the crowd streaming down the road, their arms so empty. Making it up the hill only for the Jägers to hold her back, telling her to stay outside, not to go into the castle, it wasn’t safe. Waiting, struggling to breathe, desperate to see someone, anyone, holding her grandson.

General Zog appearing at the front door, tears streaming unheeded from his eyes, unable to look at her, unable to say anything but I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

She remembered the moment when she had seen the bundle in the lifeless arms of the young von Mekkhan. Carson on his knees, weeping. Saturnus staring, unmoving, apparently not noticing the bone jutting out from his own broken arm. The blanket she had embroideredwhen Lucrezia announced she was pregnant. Daisies and bumblebees being swallowed up, one by one, by the crawling wash of Klaus Barry’s blood.   

“I can’t do it,” she whispered.

“Teodora...” Saturnus said, pained.

“I can’t!” Teodora shouted. “I can’t, I can’t – do you have any idea how suspicious it is? You are the right age. You live with us . You look like your family! The only reason no one suspects you is your headaches. That alone protects you!”

“I don’t—” Agatha said.

“I can’t keep you safe!” Teodora screamed. “This is the only thing I can do!”

“Teodora,” Saturnus said, wheeling himself between them. “I’m not stupid enough to tell you to calm down, but take a breath. Let’s just take a minute—”

“ You are going to tell me to regulate my emotions?” Teodora’s voice cracked.  

“Grandmother—”

“You can’t call me that! For God’s sake, Agatha!”

Agatha took a step back, and she was frightened, frightened of her, but Teodora couldn’t stop herself. She grabbed the locket by the chain and shoved it at Agatha. 

“Put the locket on, Agatha!”

“What are you talking about?” Agatha cried, backing away further. “The locket? What does the locket have to do with anyth—”

She stopped. Her eyes went wide. She looked down at Saturnus, who could not meet her eyes.

“You were five,” Teodora said, her voice weak and desperate. “You broke through at five. Barry did the only thing he could think to do—”

“The locket...the locket? He made a locket that made me an idiot?” Agatha’s eyes welled up with tears, her face twisted in the agony of betrayal. “And you knew. You, you both knew the whole time that – it’s that?  You knew and you let it happen?”

Once again Agatha looked at Saturnus, who...hesitated. He glanced at Teodora and he—

He wasn’t going to say it, she realized. He wasn’t going to tell Agatha that it was her, and her alone, who had been complicit in this nightmare, or that he had wanted to end her torment and Teodora would not let him. It would have been so easy for him to use this to turn Agatha against her forever. To convince their granddaughter to abandon everything Teodora had ever taught her. He could have his revenge for what she’d done to Bill and Barry. He could finally get the proper evil heir he’d always wanted.

But he didn’t.

Teodora wanted to hate him for it.

“ I knew,” she said. “I knew from the start.”

“She had to tell Dr Sun and me when we took you to the hospital,” Saturnus said. “Sun wanted to run tests to find the cause, maybe try to fix what was happening.”

Dr Sun had been only slightly less displeased than Saturnus. And Saturnus had been raging .

“How could you do this to me?” Agatha demanded of Teodora.

“ I buried your brother,” Teodora said. “My sons are gone! My grandson is dead! You are all I have left in this world! Please ,” she begged.

“Agatha,” Saturnus said. How strange for him to be the calm one. “It kills me – it kills us both! But Teodora is right. This damn device is the only thing standing between you and the world. The castle is a ruin, our weapons are junked, our Jägers are...gone. If someone comes for you – and they will come for you – there is no guarantee we could stop them.” 

“The Baron—”

“ Klaus? ” Saturnus exclaimed, thumping back into his chair. “He’s one of the bastards we’re protecting you from! The best case scenario is he whisks you off to Castle Wulfenbach ‘for your own protection’ – and you would be safe, on a floating fortress with the Jägers right there to watch over you. You’d be safe, and you’d be trapped .

“Barry felt it was so important to keep you out of Klaus’ hands, he wouldn’t take you to Punch and Judy, when we all know how much easier it would have been for them to keep you hidden, just because Beetleburg joined the Empire. That locket, those headaches, they have kept you above suspicion. Do you understand?”

“No!” Agatha drew away from both of them, but it was Teodora she fixed her furious glare on. “I hate you,” she hissed. Teodora shut her eyes. “I hate you! I hate you and I hate Uncle Barry and I won’t wear the locket and I never want to talk to you again!”

She ran, storming up the stairs and slamming the door shut.

Teodora felt...hollow. There was no more grief left to feel, no more tears to shed, no more heart to break. 

“If she won’t wear it, I’ll need to fix the castle,” Saturnus said.

Teodora did not move or open her eyes. Gently, he pried the locket from her hand, where the edge of the clasp had begun to cut into her skin.

“You can’t get up the hill,” Teodora whispered, her voice very far away. She could barely hear herself over the words booming and echoing in her skull, cutting her to pieces again and again.

I hate you!

“I’ll let Sun assign one of those orderlies to push me around, pride be damned. You were right – it’s one thing to get myself killed. I’ll not let it get in the way of keeping her safe. A functioning castle is the best way to do that.”

Teodora said nothing. What was there to say?

“She’s a good girl, and she loves you,” Saturnus said, awkwardly. “I’m sure once she’s had time to calm down, she’ll...well, maybe I can convince her.” 

“I didn’t do it to hurt you,” Teodora said. Saturnus sighed.

“Teodora, I am not that self-absorbed. I know this is not about me, or my legacy. This is about Agatha.”  

“No. Bringing you here after your heart attack. Keeping you here after the strokes; being the one to look after you. I know what people think. I know what you think. I never did it because I enjoyed having power over you. I never felt pleasure at seeing you brought low.”

Saturnus was silent for a moment, his surprise and disbelief palpable. Teodora couldn’t bring herself to look at him. She didn’t want to see the look on his face. She didn’t know why the words were coming now. Perhaps it was some sort of reward for not turning Agatha against her – the gift of knowing the woman he loved did not have such malice in her heart, even after all he’d done. 

“I was worried you wouldn’t listen to the doctors, after your heart attack, and end up making it worse. I knew I could get you to listen to me, make you take your medication, keep you from doing anything foolish. Then you had your stroke and… You hated people even just seeing you with a cane. At the hospital you would have had nurses and orderlies and doctors going in and out every day, seeing you like that, I knew what you would feel, and I knew I could spare you that.”

“But... why?”

Teodora opened her eyes, but kept her eyes fixed on the wall. 

“We were both in our own personal Hell, Saturnus. It felt like someone had learned all of our fears and was forcing us to live every one of them day after day. I couldn’t make it better, but I could make sure that for at least one of us, it didn’t get worse. ” 

Saturnus said nothing for a very long time. At last she felt a hand take hers, hesitantly. Teodora did not pull away. Distantly, she wondered when she had started to find his touch a comfort.

Chapter Text

“Agatha.”

Crystalline structures whirled around her, colors shining and spinning, gears unfolding like flower petals.

“Agatha.”

The music had come back into the world, thrumming in her heart and her blood. Something that had been just out of reach was now nestled in the palm of her hand, and she could do anything—

“ Agatha.”

Agatha snorted awake, head popping up off of her arms. She looked around blearily – her glasses were all smeared – to see Saturnus’ amused smile. Her brow furrowed.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. She looked around again and, yes, she was still in her bedroom. “How did you get up the stairs?”

“You tell me,” he said cheerfully. “You’re the one who built it.”

Agatha sat up, took off her glasses, rubbed her eyes and shook her head hard, forcing herself to wake up fully. Scrubbing her glasses quickly on her shirt, she pushed them back onto her nose. 

She had fallen asleep at her desk because there was no room for her anywhere else. Her room was a catastrophe of clockwork and tools, scattered in drifts on her desk and bed and floor. Saturnus was sitting on the floor, propped up against her chest of drawers. His wheelchair was in front of him, tipped over on its side.

And it wasn’t a wheelchair anymore.

It had legs.

Eight spidery, bronze legs, sharp-tipped and each half as thick as Agatha’s forearm. Four on each side, connecting to the base of the chair on either side of a small glass dome that flickered with blue-white light. The dawn sunlight skated back and forth across the sturdy metal panels as the legs twitched, curling and uncurling.

“It was the funniest thing,” Saturnus said cheerfully. “There I am, fast asleep, when something hops onto my bed and starts jabbing me in the face. I open my eyes, and I see these little fellows driving the most interesting device.”

Agatha leaned over to see past the chair contraption, and her mouth fell open. A team of six pocket-watch clanks scurried around like ants, gathering up discarded scraps, laying out spools of wire beside Saturnus, hustling tools in and out of reach.

“You built my dingbots!” she gasped.

Saturnus burst out laughing.

“I didn’t build a damn thing!” he exclaimed. He gestured around himself. “ I was just tidying up, to make sure it won’t dump me in the river if a wire comes loose. Not to say you didn’t do a good job. It’s marvelously well done for your first big project – and in your sleep, too!”

He wagged the screwdriver at her playfully.

“And you saying you don’t think you’re a proper Heterodyne.”

It had been almost a week since Agatha had worn the locket. Never had her mind felt so clear. It was as if she could finally open her eyes all the way. Is this what it could have been like, all her life? Without even the slightest twinge of pain, she could look at the chair legs and see places it could be improved.

Now that it was laid out before her as a real creation, she knew eight legs would not be nearly enough for the kind of stability she wanted it to have. It needed more, lots more, perhaps arranged in a circle. She wasn’t at all sure it would be able to manage a hill as steep as the one leading up to the castle – no, it was far too easy to imagine those pointed tips skidding on the paving stones…

Agatha met Saturnus’ eyes, and his smile slipped away. He reached up to her, and Agatha rose from her desk to sit beside him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her forehead. 

“You think I should wear it, don’t you?” 

“I do,” he admitted. “I’ve spent the last week trying to find a way around it, and I can’t come up with anything that doesn’t risk attracting Klaus’ attention. And if we have Klaus’ attention, we have everyone else’s attention.” 

Agatha’s throat went tight. 

“But I don’t want to,” she whispered. “I don’t want to be an idiot again.”  

“I know,” he said, pulling her into a tight hug. “I know, I know. But never fear, my little hellion,” he said. “We’ll get through it. Heterodynes always do.” 

A gasp from the doorway jerked her back, and she looked up to see Teodora standing there, pale and open-mouthed. Agatha felt the anger and betrayal and resentment flare in her chest...but the hatred was not quite so white-hot now. 

“Look at this!” Saturnus exclaimed to his wife. “In her sleep! It walked me right up the stairs!”

Teodora said nothing, but her mouth closed. Her eyes flicked around the room, taking it all in.

“Don’t worry,” Saturnus said reassuringly. “I’ve got it all worked out. We’ll just tell people I did it.”

“I—” Agatha began. Teodora left the room without a word. Agatha flinched and curled in on herself. 

“She’s not mad at you,” Saturnus said reassuringly. “She’s afraid.” 

“I am not afraid,” Teodora said, striding back into the room. She had the locket in her hand, but she did not hold it out to Agatha. Instead, Teodora stepped carefully through the debris, tossed the locket onto the desk, picked up a discarded hammer, and brought it up over her head and down onto the locket as hard as she could. 

It shattered, the case stoving inwards to pierce through the delicate internal mechanisms, sending shards flying. 

No one spoke. Even the dingbots had gone still. The only sound in the room was Teodora’s heavy breathing and the zzt zzt of sparking, severed wires. 

“I,” she said, “have been dreaming of that for the last seven years. ” She turned and offered the hammer to Agatha, smiling brightly. “Would you like a go? It’s very cathartic.” 

“What the hell are you doing?” Saturnus exclaimed. 

“The locket was to stop Agatha from breaking through,” Teodora said. Agatha tried to determine if there was some thread of mania in her cheerful tone, but couldn’t find anything but genuine pleasure. “Agatha has broken through. Taking it off hasn't done any harm. Therefore, the locket is no longer a viable option.”

“You don’t know that!” Saturnus said. “ We don’t know that! For all we know it could have been designed to tamp the spark back down!” 

“Mm, shame there’s no way to find out now,” Teodora said breezily, tossing the hammer onto the desk. “You said yourself you’d need to fix the castle if she won’t wear the locket. You can get some of the local monsters to help you fend off the security features the castle has no control over—” 

“I said that before I knew she was going to break through!” Saturnus interrupted. “There is no hiding a Spark! We can say I built the chair, but how are we going to blame it on me when she starts building a death ray in chemistry class?”

Agatha frowned. “I wouldn’t have the necessary parts to build a death ray in the chemistry labs—”

“You know what I mean!”

“Agatha will be taking a little sabbatical after what happened.” 

“I am?”

“Of course. A little rest, and there’s always the workshop out back.” 

Agatha could see, despite himself, Saturnus was beginning to waver. 

“Well…” he said, rubbing his chin. “I suppose if we're careful there might not be too much harm in it…" 

Agatha hesitated. “I’m still mad,” she said to Teodora, whose smile turned sad.

“You have every right to be. I—”  

Someone began to bang on the front door, a loud and insistent pounding that intended, perhaps demanded, to be heard.

“Ah, that’ll be Herr Müller, I expect,” Saturnus said dryly. “He’ll probably want payment. These things were still coming in and out through the letter flap with supplies when I came up here.”

“What!” Agatha yelped, shooting to her feet. “I never told them to steal anything!” She recalled that she did not actually remember doing any of this, and amended, “I’m sure I wouldn’t do that.”

“If I had to guess,” Saturnus said with a grin, “you told them to go get you this and that, and did not specify from whence such items should be obtained.”

Agatha hid her face in her hands. “Oh…” she groaned.

“You’ll learn,” Saturnus said, cheerfully patting her on the knee. “Now!” he said, excitedly. “Watch this.”

Saturnus pulled the chair upright. The legs clattered and shifted as they reset themselves, then bent down low until the seat itself was almost touching the ground. Saturnus turned himself around so his back was to it. He gripped the arms of the chair and with a grunt, pushed himself up and back, into the seat.

Agatha could see now that the arms of the chair were much thicker than they had been before, no doubt to make room for the various mechanisms within. On the left side, a single dial marked up and down ; on the right, what looked like the very top of a small bronze globe, deeply inset in the arm.

It was far too simple – it needed more settings, things that could be changed to adjust to different environments and obstacles. Sharper tips for ice in winter, more deliberate movements for navigating cobblestones...

Twisting the little dial, Saturnus brought the chair up off the ground. It stood a little taller than the wheelchair had, bringing his head level with Agatha’s shoulder.

“It works,” Agatha whispered.

“It does!” Saturnus said, beaming. Sliding his fingers over the inset globe, he guided the chair to circle Agatha, the pointed ends of the legs tapping against the wooden floor. No smoke, no sparks, no juddering, no exploding. The pistons were a little loud, and the movements could stand to be smoother, and there were so many ways it could be improved but...but it worked. It functioned.

Agatha felt dizzy, almost detached from her own body. She’d built something that worked! She’d had an idea and she’d built it and it did exactly what she wanted it to do. What about all the other ideas she’d had that hadn’t worked? All the clocks and clanks and—and the schoolwork, too! She would finally be able to show them, and she would! She’d show them all—!

The pounding on the door came again, louder. Teodora sighed and headed down the stairs.

“Oh dear. He does sound very upset.”  

“Heh. Can’t be worse than Barry’s breakthrough,” Saturnus said, following her.

“Lord, yes. It took days to put the cathedral’s clock back together.”

“We still haven’t found all the pieces. Wait, wait!” he said suddenly. “Go to the bottom of the stairs, both of you.”

Obediently, Agatha and Teodora did so, then turned back up to watch Saturnus, who brought the chair up to the very first step, and stopped.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” Agatha asked warily. They were long past the point where things normally went wrong, but from experience, Agatha knew the longer it took whatever she’d built to explode, the worse it would be.

“I got up here, didn’t I?”

Saturnus swiveled the chair to face right and began to descend the stairs sideways, crablike. The legs on the higher stairs bent low, the legs on the low stairs stretched higher, and Saturnus was barely off balance as the chair carried him carefully, though not particularly gracefully, to the ground floor. 

“It really does work,” Agatha breathed. Saturnus took Agatha’s face in his hands.

“You, my dear, are a gift. And a better present I could not ask for.”

Agatha’s heart swelled and her eyes burned. She’d helped. She loved him and she’d wanted to build him something and she had and it was wonderful.

“I—”

This time, the pounding at the door continued, unceasing, one long steady bam bam bam bam bam that made the door shudder on its hinges.

“ I’m coming, Herr Müller !” Teodora called.

She had barely turned the latch and the doorknob before the door was shoved hard towards her, and Tarvek Sturmvoraus shoved his head and one arm through the gap in the door.

“ Tarvek?”

“Agatha!” he cried. “We have to get you out of here!”

Chapter Text

Like a small animal squeezing through an apparently much-too-small gap, Tarvek squirmed his way past Teodora. He darted across the room and grabbed Agatha’s arms. Disheveled, wild-eyed, and breathless, he was wearing what had once been very elegant travelling clothes, now covered in a layer of dust and damp with stale sweat Agatha could smell. He was wearing a different pair of glasses with much larger lenses, which only emphasized the frantic terror.  

"Young man, what do you think you are doing?" Teodora demanded. 

“You need to run,” Tarvek said. “My father, the Geisterdamen, they’re on their way here right now .”

“What?” Saturnus exclaimed. He grabbed Tarvek and dragged him away from Agatha, glaring at him. “Who the hell are you? What are you talking about?”

Agatha realized that, in the drama of the night before, she had not gotten around to telling her grandparents where she had been or what had happened. She opened her mouth to explain, but Tarvek barreled on ahead.

“My father thinks Agatha is Lucrezia Mongfish’s daughter,” Tarvek said.

“Agatha is no Heterodyne,” Saturnus said instantly, sharply.

“He doesn't care if she's a Heterodyne,” Tarvek said. “It’s Lucrezia’s daughter he’s after. The Geisterdamen think Lucrezia is their goddess.”

It was Teodora who scoffed.

“Oh, she must have loved that.” She shut the door and folded her arms across her chest. Agatha saw Tarvek tense, saw his eyes flicking to windows, and realized he was looking for exits. “And does your father think that woman is a goddess, too?”

“He’s... He used to work with her. For her.” Tarvek turned to Agatha, looking sick. “I managed to get him to explain some of it, and some of it I put together, and some...” He swallowed hard. "The girls they've been killing, they weren't trying to kill them. They were running an experiment, but it would only work on you." 

The dead girls the Geisterdamen left in the tunnels. Tarvek had said they were about his age.

About her age.

“Your father, whoever he is,” Teodora said. “He has the Geisterdamen, but what kind of a threat is he?”

“My father is Prince Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus,” Tarvek said stiffly, “and he brings an army with him, backed by the Knights of Jove.”

Saturnus’ hand shot out and grabbed onto Tarvek’s collar. He surged forward, the metal legs thundering on the floor as he dragged Tarvek towards the door, nearly pulling Tarvek off his feet.

“Get out.”

“Hey! Stop, you need to listen—!”

“Oh, I’m listening! Do you think I’m an idiot? You expect me to believe you’re not up to your neck in this? Barging in here, trying to get her to leave the town so your father’s men can grab her the second she sets foot outside—!”

“No!” Tarvek twisted, breaking free of Saturnus’ hold with a move that looked almost like a dance. “I had nothing to do with any of it! I’m trying to help!” He looked at Agatha with desperation. “I don’t want him to hurt you!”

Agatha marched across the room and grabbed his hand as tightly as she could.

“Stop it,” she snapped at her grandfather. “Tarvek put himself in a lot of danger getting me out of Sturmhalten last time, and even more danger getting here to warn us. I trust him. You don’t have to trust him,” she said, interrupting Saturnus before he could speak. “If he says a thousand soldiers are coming, prepare for two thousand, if it makes you feel better. Keep him under guard. But I am not sending him away.”

“You are not the mistress of this household, young lady,” Saturnus said sternly. Agatha knew he meant you are not the ruler of this town yet. “You don’t get to give me orders.”

“I’m not telling you what to do. I’m telling you what I’m going to do, which is keep him right here with me, where it’s safe.” 

She glanced at Tarvek, and was alarmed to see that his eyes were suddenly overbright. He was very good at keeping his expression impassive, but she could see his mouth trembling. 

"Did you get out okay?" she asked. He nodded. 

"The Jägers you sent helped me ge—" 

"Jägers?" Teodora and Saturnus exclaimed. 

"We – I ran into them on my way back. They helped me get away from some guards who were chasing me. I asked them to go back and get Tarvek and any evidence to prove what the Prince of Sturmhalten was doing. Did they get it?" 

"Yes, but we got separated. They said to run for Mechanicsburg, and they'd catch up, but they never did." 

"Oh, how convenient," Saturnus said. To Agatha, he said "I cannot believe you had Jägers and you sent them away! What were you thinking?" 

"I had…Hetty," she finished. Everyone looked at her blankly. "She, um…drove the cart that took me back to Mechanicsburg. She has a crossbow." 

They continued to stare. 

"It's…it's a really fancy crossbow," Agatha said helplessly. 

To Agatha's relief, there was another hurried knock on the door, but this time the knocker did not wait to be let in. Carson stepped inside, breathless, his hat in his hand. He looked more frazzled than Agatha had ever seen him.

“Lord Saturnus, Lady Teodora,” he said. His eyes landed on Tarvek and he let out a cry of frustration. “There you are! Get back down to the guard house, young man, we need everything you can tell us about this army!” 

“I won’t believe a word he says,” Saturnus said. “Didn’t he tell you who he was?”

“He didn’t have to,” Carson said. “I know the Sturmvoraus blood when I see it.”

Tarvek bristled, but before he could argue, Carson’s brow furrowed and he frowned, looking at Saturnus.

“What are you…?”

Saturnus, immediately distracted, grinned and patted the arm of the chair, proudly. “You like it? Based on Agatha’s designs. Still needs a little work, but—”

“Saturnus,” Teodora said. “The impending invasion?”

“I know, I know!”

“We need the castle.”

“There’s no time! ” Saturnus said. “The intelligence splintered when the Castle was damaged. I figured out how to connect the pieces, but the personalities won’t mesh. Didn’t have time to figure out why or how to fix it before…” He gestured to his chest.

“Personalities?” Tarvek repeated, eyes wide with interest.

“Right,” Teodora said, stepping in. “Young man, a bath and something to eat.”

“I have important strategic information!” Tarvek protested.

“And it will be just as important after we make sure you don’t pass out from hunger – and you are in no fit state to sit at my table at the moment. You said you were two days ahead of them. We can wait a few hours more. Upstairs, right now.”

She shooed him up the stairs, Tarvek protesting the whole way. Only when they were out of earshot did Agatha repeat his question. 

“Personalities?”

“You remember the stories I told you about the castle, all the things it can do?”

“It’s run by a thinking engine, a copy of Faustus Heterodyne’s mind.”

“It isn’t run by a thinking engine, it is a thinking engine. To do what the castle does, you’d need a thinking engine the size of the castle, so Faustus put the two together. Its consciousness is spread out across the entire structure. When it was damaged, it broke into pieces, and the pieces can’t talk to each other. Like if you cut up someone’s brain and put each piece in a different body – not only does each one now have its own memories completely independent of the whole, none of them have enough of a brain to function properly.”

“And you can put the pieces back in the skull, but it just puts all those people in one body,” Agatha said, eyes wide with fascination.

“Two days is not enough time to figure out how to fix that,” Saturnus said. “And that’d be on top of all the other repairs it needs. No, I’m going to get to work on the independent defense systems – anything that doesn’t need the castle to run.” To Carson, he said, “You should speak with Vole. Coordinate the defenses. I doubt he’ll want to hear it from me.”

Agatha bit her tongue.

“I don’t know if that is a good idea,” Carson said, quietly. “I suspect Vole is involved with this, somehow, though I don’t know how, or in what capacity.”

“What?” Saturnus’ hands tightened on the arms of the chair.

“He left town very suddenly a few days ago, and didn’t come back until last night – very shortly after Miss Sannikova returned,” he added, with a glance towards Agatha. “And when Master Sturmvoraus arrived, he was asking for Vole by name.”

Slowly, Saturnus turned to look at Agatha, who squirmed.

"He's the one that got you out of Sturmhalten, isn't he? That's why you sent the Jägers away." 

"The what?" Carson said, but was ignored. Agatha stared at her feet.  

“Agatha,” Saturnus said. “What, exactly, happened in Sturmhalten?”

Agatha took a deep breath and let most of the story fall out in a rush, an endless babbling stream of words that left no room for comment or question.

“I tried to switch airships and I was going to buy a ticket on board but that was illegal there apparently and one of the guards tried to arrest me and I yelled at him to let me go and he did and then the prince asked where I was going and when I said Beetleburg he said he was going there too so I could go with him the next day and I had a bad feeling about it but couldn’t think of what to say so I said yes and I was supposed to be having tea with his daughter but she was awful so I left and I found Tarvek in the library and he asked who I was and I told him and he said they weren’t going to Beetleburg but he’d help me get a horse to leave town and but when I tried to leave the Geisterdamen stopped me and he helped me escape out of the castle through the tunnels and the sewers and then I met Hetty and she was giving the Jägers a ride and we got attacked by guards but she shot them all and I asked the Jägers to go back to Sturmhalten—”

She sucked in a huge breath.

“And then I came back here.”

Carson blinked several times, trying to parse the information out of the babbling rush of words. Saturnus was not deterred or distracted in the slightest. 

“And where was Vole in all this?” he asked. 

“He...wasn’t.”

“Agatha.” Saturnus grabbed her wrist. “Whatever he said to you, whatever he once was to me, if he is a threat to you, I must know. ”

“He came to get me,” Agatha admitted reluctantly. “When he tried to leave with me, the Geisterdamen tried to stop him, and he fought them off. And Tarvek helped us get through the castle and the tunnels, and he’s got nothing to do with it either!” 

“Who asked him to get you?” Carson asked, ignoring this last part. “The Baron?”

“No one.” She glanced at Saturnus, who was so awfully quiet. “He said he didn’t need anyone to ask him.”

Saturnus flinched, letting go of her hand abruptly. “And he didn’t want you to tell me,” he said dully.

“He said he’s worried that if anyone found out, the Baron would think he’s secretly working for you.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. Well, the statement was true, anyway – that was what Vole had said to her, even if Agatha knew it was a lie.

Saturnus let out a humorless bark of a laugh, and then went quiet for a moment. At last, he shook himself.

“Carson, I want a list of everything that still works, and everything that would work if the Empire hadn’t broken it, and I want everyone who can hold a wrench ready to get to work.”

“Yes, sir. When I left, Vole was sending scouts to the Sturmhalten side of the valley. They’ll tell us when the troops are in sight, and give us a better idea of what we’re working with. Perhaps I should inform General Gkika,” Carson added, carefully. “Some of the Jägers are able to fight. Even if they can’t come into the town, they could—”

“Get themselves slaughtered slowing the army down for five minutes?” Saturnus finished irritably. “I’ll be shocked if there’s more than fifteen fully able soldiers down there. They’re good, but they’re not that good, especially without a general to keep them focused – and I won’t risk Gkika. She’ll be the only thing keeping the ones who can’t fight from trying to crawl out the tunnels to do it anyway.”

He glared down at his hands, flexing his fingers. The fingers on the right hand were slow to respond, and the ones on the left had trouble uncurling all the way.

“I don't have the time to grow new limbs for them, and some of their injuries need nimbler hands than mine. We focus on what I can fix. Let’s get going.”

“What if you killed the brain and brought it back?”

Saturnus and Carson turned to Agatha in surprise. Her mind had wandered back to the castle, and now her expression was thoughtful.

“When you were talking about the castle as a brain with different parts that couldn’t fit together. What if you killed the brain, reattached all the pieces, and brought it back again? Then it would restart as one piece.”

Saturnus continued to stare at her. His face began to turn red, a flush that began at his neck and slowly rose up to his hairline. When he spoke, it was in a voice that was audibly struggling to remain calm and not doing a very good job, vibrating with the harmonics of a Spark teetering on the edge of the madness place. 

“I will not. Kill. The castle.”

Very slowly, Carson began to edge backwards, away from Saturnus.

“You wouldn’t actually kill it!” Agatha insisted. “That was just the metaphor! The castle is a thinking engine; it would just be turning it off and on again.”

Saturnus did not seem to hear her.

“That you would even suggest—”

“I was just—”

“ Don’t!”

Agatha flinched, and Saturnus subsided immediately. He turned away from her, but reached out and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze before guiding the chair towards the door. 

“Let’s go.”

“I just want to help,” Agatha said quietly. Carson’s expression turned slightly alarmed, but he hid it away again quickly.

“I’m sure we could find something for you to do,” he said carefully. Probably trying to think of what he could give her to do that wouldn't cause any material damage if – when – she made it worse, Agatha thought miserably.

“No,” Saturnus said. “Agatha, you stay here with Teodora. Keep your head down. We don’t want you drawing any more attention to yourself.”

Agatha wrapped her arms around herself as Saturnus and Carson left, and didn’t move until Teodora came down the stairs.

“Agatha?”

“I want to help,” she whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. “I have to help, I have to do something. This is all my fault!”

“It’s not—”

“It is! If I hadn’t run away—”

“You are not responsible for the actions of other people,” Teodora said sharply. “Not like this. You did not force the prince to do this.”

Agatha hugged herself even tighter. It did not make her feel much better. This was all still happening. She was still helpless. 

“I still need to do something. This is my town. It’s my home. But if I do, I’ll, I’ll give it away. People will be able to tell I’m a Spark, and then all of this will have been for nothing.”

“Not for nothing,” Teodora said. “You have a much better chance of defending yourself now than you did when you were five.”

Teodora reached for her, and Agatha twitched away.  From the corner of her eye Agatha saw her hand curl, withdrawing. For a moment, Teodora said nothing.

“I cared that it hurt you,” Teodora said. Agatha looked up, startled to see tears in Teodora’s eyes. “It has killed me to have to watch you suffer and know I could stop it. Every day you have been here, I have had to fight myself not to take a hammer to that awful, awful thing.”

“Your reasoning was logically sound,” Agatha muttered. 

“It doesn’t matter,” Teodora said. “That it was logical, that it was the only thing we could think to do, that your uncle and I tore ourselves to pieces trying to think of an alternative – none of that will undo the damage we did to you. God knows I’ve found no comfort in it. I am not telling you this to convince you to forgive me. You have every right to be angry, and I will never tell you otherwise.”

Teodora hesitated and forced a very weak smile. “I suppose I’m just trying to make sure you hate me for the right reasons.”

“I don’t hate you,” Agatha said. She flung her arms around Teodora and clung to her, her throat growing tight and her eyes stinging. “I’m sorry I said I did, I’m sorry.”

“Do not apologize,” Teodora said, a firm order despite the gentle hand stroking Agatha’s hair. “Do not apologize to me. Not for this, not ever.”

"Okay," Agatha said, softly. "I'm still angry, but I don't hate you." 

Teodora kissed her forehead.

“I’m grateful for that,” she said, still stroking Agatha's hair. In a very soft voice, she said, “You are a Heterodyne. You are the Lady of Mechanicsburg. Everything you are drives you to protect this town. I have every faith you will find a way to do it without giving yourself away.”

“But if anyone sees m—” Agatha stopped.

Teodora and Saturnus had already answered the question, she realized. The one place in town where the defenses needed fixing where the townspeople would not go and where anyone who saw her would be unable to tell anyone outside. She stepped back and looked up at Teodora, ideas already gathering in her mind. 

“I need to go to the library.”

Teodora smiled proudly and cupped Agatha's chin.

“There. See?” She dropped her hand. “I want you to take someone with you,” she said. “Your grandfather will have another stroke if I let you out of the house without supervision.”

“I can look after myself! They’re not even here yet!”

“The army is not here yet. If this boy Tarvek can make it here ahead of the army, so can any number of his father’s spies. Especially if they have Smoke Knights.”

“What if I take Tarvek with me?”

Teodora’s eyebrows rose.

“That would be worse than letting you out alone.” Her mouth twisted wryly. “I never thought I’d see the day I wished the Jägers were around.”

For the third time this morning, a heavy knock came at the door. Agatha and Teodora froze. Teodora pushed Agatha behind her, further down the hall and out of line of sight of the door. Cautiously, she approached the window beside the door. Pulling back the curtain a crack, she peered out.

“Who is it?” Agatha whispered.

To her surprise, Teodora’s shoulders relaxed – although her smile was even more sardonic.

“The next best thing,” she said dryly, and pulled open the door. “Good morning, Guildmaster.”

Agatha came out of the hall and saw three pairs of knees bending to reveal the massive form of Jorbelox, master of the Monsters’ Guild. The monster politely removed his hat.

“Good morning, Lady Teodora,” he said, his basso profundo voice making the window panes shiver. “I just bumped into Lord Saturnus. He asked me to send a few of our members to keep an eye on the house until a proper guard could be arranged. They are loitering, to appear inconspicuous, and I am simply here to give my well-wishes to Miss Sannikova after her little turn.”

“Good morning, Guildmaster,” she said. “I’m doing much better, thank you.”

Teodora glanced back at Agatha, then up at Jorbelox. The guildmaster’s face shifted into the very polite mask he always wore in conversations with Teodora. Agatha could never tell if it hid annoyance or hurt feelings.

“I will take no more of your time,” he said.

“Actually,” Teodora said. “Agatha would like to go to the library. In the current circumstances, Saturnus and I do not want her walking around by herself, even within the safety of the walls. Perhaps you could find someone to escort her? Someone you trust.”

Jorbelox stared at her.

Agatha stared at her.

Teodora did not hate all monsters. She was perfectly aware that some of them were innocents who had fled cruelty and prejudice. However, she knew exactly which citizens of Mechanicsburg, human or non-human, were metaphorically monsters, and she had certainly made no secret of the fact she did not like Agatha spending time with those. Agatha couldn’t blame her, not anymore. 

Not after Saturnus had told her what Jorbelox had done to end up in Mechanicsburg.

Although it hadn’t stopped Agatha from liking Jorbelox, even if she did see him differently – and now she supposed she knew why. She was a born and bred Mechanicsburger – the Mechanicsburger, in fact. It looked like she had not inherited all of her father’s aversion to evil.

She should...probably be careful about that.

“Saturnus trusts you,” Teodora said. “And in the case of Agatha’s safety, I trust his judgment of you.”

“I...will send someone here shortly,” Jorbelox said, at last. Teodora gave him what appeared to be a genuine smile.

“Thank you, Guildmaster. Agatha, go get dressed. Our guest should be finished soon.”

Agatha did not need to be told twice; she raced up the stairs as fast as she could go. Once she was in the library, Agatha could get the books she needed. She’d read them as fast as she could, and when Tarvek finished telling Carson and Vole all that he knew, she could get his help.

Agatha had had a lot of plans in her life, but now she was a Spark, and that meant this plan could work .

Chapter Text

Mid-afternoon, the telegraph system went down.

At 5:15 pm exactly, a Corbettite monk, incandescent with rage and trailed by a nearly hysterical pack of tourists, appeared at the gate to inform them that the train tracks just outside the mouth of the valley had been sabotaged.

The next day, the usual stream of visitors and tradesmen died to a trickle before drying up entirely.

The Storm Lords were marching on Mechanicsburg.

Anticipation filled the air like humidity before a thunderstorm – filling the lungs and sticking to skin, leaving them all sweating on a cool spring day. And yet, in a strange way, the people of Mechanicsburg were enjoying themselves. For the first time in over a decade – honestly, in over two decades – they had a Heterodyne stomping around town, shouting orders and working on machines of chaos and destruction.

And Saturnus was in his element. The town had changed in the last fifteen years, but it was still Mechanicsburg, his town, his engine of beautiful destruction. Despite the stiffness in his fingers and the weakness in his heart, he could still feel Mechanicsburg singing in his blood. Every minute spent breathing life back into her, he felt more and more alive himself.

Mechanicsburg needed a Heterodyne, but so, too, did a Heterodyne need Mechanicsburg.

He wished Agatha could have joined him. He wanted to share it with her the way he had – briefly, when they were young and had not yet had an understanding of good or evil, when they had not learned to turn away from all that Saturnus was – shared it with Bill and Barry. But it wasn’t safe. Oh, Sturmhalten’s invasion was absolutely going to incite others. When word got out, Agatha's reputation as an incompetent might be deemed irrelevant, or perhaps dismissed as an act. But if they could maintain even a sliver of plausible deniability, they could at least keep some of them at bay.

Fortunately – surprisingly – Agatha did not protest. She had been perfectly willing to spend the last two days sequestering herself inside the house, working on some gadget or other with the Sturmvoraus boy. Saturnus did not approve in the slightest for a variety of reasons, up to and including continuing the proud tradition of grandfathers everywhere refusing to believe any boy could be good enough for his granddaughter.

He allowed it, however, on the grounds that Sturmvoraus made a useful, if somewhat galling, smokescreen. Agatha was not a Spark. She was simply helping Tarvek, getting caught up in his madness the way any Mechanicsburger would.

But he didn’t like it.

“A Sturmvoraus! And a Valois!” he exclaimed to the minion currently assisting him in converting the shaved ice machine back into a railgun that shot icicles two meters long. “Both in one body, you might as well befriend an actual viper! He picks locks, she said!”

The minion stifled a yawn; a rant was no good for getting you fired up in the morning when it was one you’d been listening to for two days. Saturnus yanked out the gyroscopic converter that had been gnawed to pieces by rust rats and tossed it aside. He began to adjust the wires and gears, making room for the new, slightly larger, but more efficient converter he had built. 

“Is he a Spark or a common burglar? I’ve never picked a lock in my life! What’s wrong with a good blowtorch, I ask you? Or a miniaturized self-propelled battering ram? Lockpicks.”

He reached out and felt along the nearby table for the converter, which he was sure he’d set within arm’s reach.

“What did you need, my Lord?” the minion asked, snapping back to attention. Before Saturnus could answer, the converter was pushed into his questing fingers. Saturnus grunted in approval, glanced up, and did a double take.

Vole was not quite standing to attention, but his stiff-backed posture was not too far off.

Captain, Carson had said. It was doubtful that Mechanicsburg had enough fighting to keep him truly happy, but he’d clearly not suffered for it. He looked strong and well-fed; his uniform crisp and immaculate; his hat tall, if understated in decoration.

Saturnus tried not to look at said decoration, the Wulfenbach house sigil prominent and unmistakable. A gleaming reminder of Saturnus’ failure.

“De scouts from de far side of der valley haff returned. De army is here. It vill be at der valls in four hours.”

“Damn,” Saturnus said. “Well, the brat said two days and that’s what we got. Where’s Carson?”

Vole’s lip curled. “Dealing vit der tourists.”

“Ah, good. They’ll make excellent meat shields.” He caught the look on Vole’s face and sighed. “He’s getting them somewhere safe and out of the way, isn’t he?”

“Yez, sir.”

Saturnus made a noise of disgust and rolled his eyes. Even with Bill and Barry gone, the cleansing fire had scoured too deep. It might take decades for Mechanicsburg to go properly rotten again – if ever, considering Teodora’s effect on its heiress presumptive.

“You,” he said to the minion. “Go tell Teodora. I want her and Agatha in that house until this is over. She is not to open the door to anyone that isn’t me or Carson.”

The minion nodded, but hesitated, glancing at Vole.

“Go!” Saturnus bellowed, and the minion scampered off.

Only then did Saturnus realize this meant he and Vole were now alone.

They had not been avoiding each other. It was simply that the things they were working on were too important to leave to other people, and so necessitated any communication be sent via a third party.

Vole held out a folded piece of paper.

“De scouts’ report. Vut dey saw of de army before dey ran.”

Saturnus glanced at the paper, then at the device in his hand, and turned back to the icicle railgun. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to think about less: the last time he’d had Vole at his side, or the last time he’d seen Vole.

It’s not his fault!

No! It vuz willful. He tried to kill dem because he vanted dem dead! By Lord Villiam’s order, he lives, but not effen de Heterodyne could compel us to allow dis vun to stay a Jӓger.   

“I need to finish this damn thing,” he said, and waved off the report. “Tell me while I work.”

There was a silent moment where Saturnus could not bring himself to look at Vole, but then Vole unfolded the paper and started to read out the list. Soon Saturnus was distracted by the grim picture the report painted.

Airships, battle clanks, cannon towers, foot soldiers, monsters...

“The Geisterdamen?”

“Dey did not see dem.”

“They’ll be here somewhere,” Saturnus said.

“Yez. I sent de Black Sqvad out to search for dem.” The rustling of paper again, as Vole tucked the report away. “Deze is not exact numbers. De scouts did not stay long. It vuz more important dot dey let us know dey vuz here.”

“No, no, they did right. Hopefully the next group will be able to get a better look.” He finished attaching the wires and selected one of the small brass rods that would form the cage to hold the mechanism away from the engine’s pistons.

“Dis iz more den I thought Sturmhalten vould be able to get hold of dis qvickly. Dey dun have a standing army.” 

“The Fifty Families are always ready for a fight,” Saturnus said. Using two pliers, he twisted a rod into the shape he needed before welding it in place. “Sturmvoraus probably had them hidden in his basement or something.”

“Sturmhalten dun use siege engines,” Vole countered. Absentmindedly, he picked up a rod from the pile and twisted it into the new shape with his bare hands. “Dey dun march out at all. Dey trick de enemy into attacking dem , so dey can fight from behind deir own valls – und it lets dem claim dot dey iz de victims.”

Saturnus took the twisted rod from Vole, snorting disdainfully.

“Hah, and they only do that if they think they can’t get away with sending their damn Smoke Knights after the person they want dead.”

Even before the rod was set, Vole had twisted another. He passed it to Saturnus.

“He picks locks!” Saturnus exclaimed. 

“Hy know, Hy saw. Vuz pathetic. Und he can’t take a hit eidder. De whole family is like dot, dey neffer do anyting to hyu face if dey can help it.”

“But they must have had the army already,” Saturnus said. “The Sturmvoraus boy got here barely twelve hours after Agatha did, and his father was two days behind him – and that’s on foot, with the siege engines. It takes time to gather those forces if they aren’t with you already. You can’t pop round to the neighbors and say hullo, I’m launching an invasion, can I borrow a cup of air support.”

“I iz telling hyu,” Vole insisted. “Dey got dem from somevere else. De airships are big. If der prince already had dem, I vould haff seen dem ven I vent to—”

Vole cut himself off, but it was too late. The illusion shattered, both abruptly, painfully remembering that this was no longer normal. Saturnus was not Vole’s Heterodyne. Vole was not his Jäger. Saturnus’ chest ached in a way that had nothing to do with his heart – not the muscle, anyway.

No one had asked Vole to get Agatha, but he had gone anyway.

Nobody needed to ask him.

Hy alvays know vut hyu need.

But Vole had told Agatha he was concerned only that if the Baron found out, he would think he was still working for Saturnus. Because he wasn’t.

“Carson thought you might have something to do with it, with you coming back the same night as Agatha, and Sturmvoraus knowing you by name,” Saturnus said, carefully. 

“Und vut did hyu tink?” Vole asked, just as carefully.

“I knew what happened the second Carson said you’d arrived when Agatha did.” He tinkered very deliberately with the guts of the machine, not able to bring himself to look at Vole. “Only made Agatha cough it up so Carson wouldn’t be distracted.”

There was a moment of quiet.

“I think I owe you a debt,” Saturnus muttered. 

“Hyu dun owe me a debt.”

“Restitution, then.”

“Hyu dun owe me anyting.”

Slowly, Saturnus looked up at him. Vole’s expression held no anger or malice or bitterness – none of the things Saturnus would have expected. None of the things Saturnus deserved. Only solemnity, a kind that was quite odd to see on any Jäger – or ex-Jäger’s – face.

“You can’t say that,” Saturnus said. “Not after—”

The alarm gongs began to ring.

“Dot is too soon,” Vole said, once more the captain of Mechanicsburg’s occupying guards, all professionalism. “Dey cannot be here already.”

“Something’s here.”

Saturnus maneuvered the chair towards the door and nearly ran into Carson coming the other way. The man was ashen.

“Soldiers coming from the east of the valley,” he said.

“The east? “

“Impossible,” Vole said. “Dere iz no vay Sturmhalten could get around der valley dot fast!”

“They aren’t coming from Sturmhalten,” Carson said. “They’re coming from the Refuge of Storms.”

The Knights of Jove. The Refuge of Storms, Sturmhalten – all heirs to the Lightning Crown, the legacy of that damnable Storm King.

“Oh, hell,” Saturnus said. No, that didn’t feel right. He slammed his fist down on the table, sending the little metal rods flying as the old fury burned to life. “They want to come for Mechanicsburg? Let them come! Let them beat themselves bloody against our walls! We will slaughter them like the animals they are! The survivors will decorate the mouth of the valley, and their dying screams will sing to Europa a reminder of why the Heterodynes are feared!”

Much better.

Carson fairly leapt out of the way as Saturnus sent the chair storming out of the room and down the battlements to the east wall. The once-Lord Heterodyne was so swept up in his madness, he did not notice the look on Vole’s face.

But Carson did.

For the first time, he felt something like pity for the ex-Jäger, and left hurriedly before Vole sensed it and killed him.

The people of Mechanicsburg erupted into an even greater flurry of activity. Weapons were prepared in double-time, active repairs wrapped up with creditable speed, the young and infirm sent faster than they could protest to safety in the Great Hospital, which made its own preparations for war.

Nothing happened.

Von Blitzengaard’s forces arrived first, growing from a smudge on the horizon to a long parade line of soldiers and battle clanks, but they camped just out of firing range and stayed there. Some hours later, Sturmhalten’s forces arrived, and did the same. No attack came, but neither did any messages, threats, or demands. They simply...waited. Pinned between the two forces, Mechanicsburg had no choice but to do the same.

What they were waiting for turned out to be a small dirigible, a swift-moving scouting ship that bore the Wulfenbach crest and arrived at dawn. It drifted up to the city and stopped, hovering, right over the west wall, which made Saturnus grind his teeth so hard it was audible. It did not land, but disgorged a single individual by way of an emergency drop reel.

It was an absolutely immaculate young woman who landed neatly before Saturnus. From her dark hair slicked back in its painfully tight bun to the fitted longcoat to the shiny shoes, she was such a picture of no-nonsense professionalism, Saturnus knew what she was before she even opened her mouth.  

“Good morning,” she said as she tugged the drop reel to send it winding back up into the airship. “I am Millicent Kragen, questor for the empire.”

“Charmed, I’m sure,” Saturnus said scathingly. “Are you here to arrest the armies marching on this town in clear breach of the Baron’s peace, or simply raise a carefully manicured eyebrow at them until they go home?”

Kragen did not raise an eyebrow, but one did twitch slightly.

“I am here to investigate the allegations from Prince Aaronev Wilhelm Sturmvoraus that Mechanicsburg plotted and executed the kidnapping of his son, Master Aaronev Tarvek Sturmvoraus.”

Everyone’s jaw dropped.

“What?”

“Several days ago, Prince Sturmvoraus sent word to the Baron that a Jäger and a young girl from Mechanicsburg had entered the castle on false pretenses and kidnapped his son.”

“And what about our messages?”

“Yes,” Kragen said, in an amused, almost condescending tone that made Saturnus want to flip her straight over the side of the wall. “The Baron received those, too. I’m afraid your side of the story is not quite as believable. Geisterdamen? I’m far more ready to believe you wished to acquire a companion for your ward – the way you did for yourself.”

Saturnus’ lip curled in contempt.

“If you’re trying to use shame to cow me, it won’t work,” he said. “If Heterodynes could feel shame, we wouldn’t be what we are. Agatha ran away, as young people occasionally do. Vole went to get her back.”

“You sent your Jäger into Stur—”

“I iz not a Jäger.”

Saturnus was not sure when Vole had arrived on the walls, but there he was, staring down at Kragen with his own contemptuous sneer.

“Oh really,” Kragen said chidingly. “You expect me to believe that?”

“ Der Baron does,” Vole said. “If he thought I vuz a Jäger, I vould be subject to de ban, und vould not be assigned to Mechanicsburg.” His lips quirked into a tiny, even more contemptuous smile. “Maybe hyu tink hyu iz smarter den de Baron? Hyu know better den him?”

Kragen’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.  

“I will do my own investigation into this matter,” she said, not-so-neatly sidestepping the accusation. “In the meantime, for the sake of peace, Prince Aaronev has agreed that if his son is returned, he will withdraw to Sturmhalten with no further action taken against—”

“Did he now,” Saturnus growled, and turned away from her. “I want men on every secret entrance to the town. Seal up every nook and cranny there is, and Carson, you go yourself to warn Teodora. Agatha and Teodora are to remain in the same room with no less than two guards at any time. Then grab that Sturmvoraus brat and get him out here.”

“You suspect—” Kragen began, but Saturnus thumped his fist down on the chair’s arm.

“Of course I suspect! The army is now a backup plan! Plan A is to keep us and you distracted while someone sneaks in and steals Agatha away – ah, there's that eyebrow!”

“You have a very suspicious mind, Lord Heterodyne. Or are you just basing this off of what you would do in his position?”

Saturnus snorted.

“I’m a Heterodyne, you pampered tracker dog. We don’t sneak around. We face our enemy head on with acid cannons and laser guns like Hell intended!”

There was a shout from below. Carson had not even made it to the end of the street – a guard was running towards them, waving his arms and shouting.

“They’ve gone! They’ve both gone!”

“Ah, how very convenient,” the questor said.

"Search the town,” Saturnus bellowed, “top to bottom—!”

“Not kidnapped, sir! They went off! Miss Sannikova left a note!”

Kragen frowned. “What the hell are you playing at?” she demanded.

But Saturnus had gone pale. Slowly his eyes rose, dragged inexorably to the hulking shadow over Mechanicsburg even before the man below drew breath to shout.

"They're in the castle!"

Chapter Text

It was one thing to say “I’m going to sneak into the castle, locate the castle’s power source, and use my device to turn it off and on again”.

It was an entirely different thing to pull open the old iron door and have the smell of damp stone and neglect fill your nostrils, and to stare down a long, long stone hallway lit in scattered pools of red from the few still-functioning emergency lights. Agatha was not surprised to feel uncertainty and trepidation curling inside her chest, but was surprised that there was no doubt. She was not entirely sure if she should do this...but felt very sure that she could.

Or at least, that her machine could fix the castle the way she wanted. She was less sure she could survive the crazed inmates and the security devices and the castle’s own sense of humor.

Tarvek was watching her uncertainly. She hadn’t asked him to come, he had insisted – but he hadn’t wanted her to go at all. If she changed her mind and went back, Tarvek would be thrilled. But she couldn’t go back. She had to go in. Agatha drew up her nerve, adjusted her grip on the bag that held her half of the device and tools, and slipped inside. Tarvek followed her, and Agatha tried not to flinch at the heavy, muffled thump of the door swinging shut.

As loud and sudden as a gunshot, there came the sound of a heavy lock slamming into place. Tarvek dropped his bag and grabbed the door’s handle. He rattled it, which did absolutely nothing but make a noise worryingly close to a metallic chuckling. His eyes wide with terror, he looked up at Agatha.

“It’s locked!”

“Of course it is,” Agatha said soothingly. “The castle likes people coming in, remember? It’s the getting out that’s the tricky bit.”

Tarvek did not look particularly soothed, but he let go of the door handle and picked his bag up again. Agatha waved for him to wait.

“Excuse me? Castle? Are you there?”

No response.

“This might be a dead zone,” Agatha said. She pointed up at the ceiling. “This is one of the service entrances, so aren't too many traps. Just be sure you don’t stand under a tile with the little flower on it.”

She caught Tarvek’s expression again.

“You can also wait here, if you want,” she suggested. “You don’t have to do this.”

Tarvek drew himself up and scowled.

“Of course I’m not waiting here. I said I would help, and I meant it.”

Agatha smiled, relieved, and they made their way down the hallway with great care. Eventually it opened into a wide corridor lined with open doorways. The air stank of rotten wine – several large casks had been smashed open by falling rubble, and the dark stains spread like blood across the floor.

Although there was probably some actual blood in there, too.

“Storage rooms,” Agatha said. “For the kitchens. This way – up the stairs. If we can get to the trophy hall, I can navigate from there.”

“Are you sure?”

Agatha nodded and put her finger to her lips. They crept up the stairs, avoiding every third step, until they got to the door at the top. Agatha very carefully pulled it open and peeked through. When she saw no one, she dared to put her whole head into the hallway and look around. 

Empty.

This was Castle Heterodyne proper. The hallways had elaborately carved cornices and pillars. Even the skirting board was carved to look like a line of snakes eating each other’s tails. Paintings covered the walls; statues of things beautiful and terrible and both were dotted down the hallway. At the end of the left side of the corridor, Agatha could see the whole ceiling had caved in, blocking that way off except for a small opening Agatha was pretty sure they could squeeze through. She waved for Tarvek to follow.

Agatha found herself looking at the castle from two perspectives. One was as an intruder, wary of traps and danger. 

The other was as the Heterodyne.

Saturnus’ stories had painted for her a picture of a home, a fortress, a marvel – and had painted straight over the picture of a derelict, half-dead ruin that everyone else had given. She had known the place would be in bad shape, but it was a shock to see how terrible a toll time, destruction, and neglect had taken.

The paintings hung askew, their colors tarnished by ash, dust, and grime. The desicated remains of plants lay limp in their pots; several of the statues had fallen over and now lay shattered on the floor. The lush carpets were moldy and the tapestries little more than rags.

It made her heart ache.

They climbed carefully up the pile of debris. Tarvek slipped through the hole first. Agatha passed the bags to him, and then crawled through the gap. Halfway through, she looked up, and froze. 

This was not the other half of the corridor.

“Uh oh.”

“Don’t say uh oh.” Tarvek’s voice was tight and high-pitched. “Don’t say uh oh, we can’t afford uh oh!”

They were now in a large, round room from which staircases and hallways radiated out like spokes of a wheel. Many of the doorways had ornate plaques over them, but some had fallen to pieces or were so tarnished they were unreadable. The staircases were identical save for the types of monsters carved into the ends of each flight's banister. Looking up, they could see the layout repeating on the next floor, and the next, all the way up until the gloom swallowed the rest of the floors from view.

“No, it’s okay,” Agatha said, scrambling the rest of the way through and down to the floor. “I can still get us there. This must be the Tower of Crossroads. Lord Saturnus told me about it, he said the—”

"The master/master?"

Tarvek and Agatha went very still.

"Lord Sat/Saturnus lives?" The voice came from everywhere at once, booming in the quiet. It had an odd echo, like two voices speaking at once, ever so slightly out of sync. And it sounded painfully hopeful. “He was ver/very sick and he le/eft and he nev/never came ba/ck.”

“He’s alive,” Agatha said slowly.

“Why didn’t he co/me back? Is he angry wi/with me? I didn’t do it on/on/on purpose…”

“No, no, he’s not upset with you,” Agatha said, soothingly, her eyes stinging. All this time, no one had ever thought to tell it. It was a wreck, a ruin, but a broken mind was still a mind. It still cared. “He couldn’t get up the hill after his heart attack. But now he can, and I know he’ll want to visit you soon. He’s still very fond of you, I promise.”

A soft, rushing sound filled the air, what might have been wind blowing through a shattered window, and what might have been a sigh of relief.

“Can you tell me how to get to the Looted Hall from here?” Agatha asked.

“Yes!” the castle said, eagerly. “Ye/es, I do know! Third hall on your le/left and then two rights! Do give my regards to/to the Lord and La/Lady.”

Agatha and Tarvek scurried down the indicated hallway before the castle could change this part of its mind.

“It said it didn’t do ‘it’ on purpose,” Tarvek whispered, when they were far down the hall. “What is the ‘it’ that it didn’t do?”

Agatha shrugged. “I don’t know. Blow up? Cause his heart attack? He never said anything about it doing something to him. Wait! Do not go near that part of the floor.”

That was all they said to each other, outside of Agatha’s warnings about various traps, until they reached the trophy room. Agatha’s breath caught in wonder.

“Oh, look at it all!” she breathed.

“I am,” Tarvek said, eying some tattered, bloodied banners emblazoned with the Sturmvoraus family crest with significantly less awe.

Some of the trophies were relics or weapons stolen over centuries of Heterodyne raids. Some were taxidermied animals and monsters. Some were murals and paintings commemorating great and terrible events. Some of the things were mysterious and horrible unknowables. 

Some of them, even Agatha had to admit, were probably sparkly junk.

At the very center, towering over them, was a golden statue of a long-haired man in leather armor, his head thrown back, a cup held to his lips. The Ht’rock’din, eternally frozen in the moment he drank from the spring that would become the River Dyne.

Agatha grabbed Tarvek’s sleeve and pointed eagerly at an automaton bolted to a nearby wall. It was holding a pair of scales that hung wildly uneven, and its mouth was opening and closing jerkily, over and over again, though it made no sound. 

“Look! See that? That’s the Statue of Judgement from Hofstetter! It was supposed to be able to instantly identify the guilty party of any crime! When they brought it back with them, they had to remove the vocal generator because it wouldn't stop screaming! Oh, and over there! That’s the Beast of Count Gurge! It was one of the first monsters to betray its master and join the Heterodyne instead!”

“Then...then why is its head mounted on the wall?”

“Oh, the Heterodyne at the time still thought it should count as a trophy. They waited until it died of old age!” she said defensively, seeing the look on Tarvek’s face.

“You have been taught well.”

It was definitely the castle’s voice. But where the other one had sounded worried and slightly dazed, this voice was sharp and suspicious.

“Oh. Hello, Castle. Um, yes, I have. Lord Saturnus told me stories about the Heterodynes.”

“Did he now?”

“I am Agatha Sannikova, ward to Lady Teodora and Lord Saturnus. I am not their grandchild.”

“Strange that you would specify.”

“It’s safer,” Agatha said. “People tend to assume, and then they get...disappointed.”

But not once she announced herself. Then no one would ever be disappointed in her, not ever again. Not now that she had her mind free.

“I see,” the castle said, in a tone that suggested it did not quite believe her. “And you have come to see the place your... guardian told you so much about?”

“Actually,” Agatha said, “I’m here to fix you.”

Silence.

“I built a device,” she went on. The silence grabbed her tongue and she began to babble. “It’s a highly modified variation on the work of an Italian Spark that Tarvek knew about. It won’t fix the structural damage, but it should – it will pull all the still-active parts of you into one connected whole again. I just need to get to the—”

She cut herself off abruptly.

“Turn around and cover your ears,” she ordered Tarvek.

“What?”

Agatha grabbed his shoulders, spun him around, and pressed her hands over Tarvek’s ears.

“Hey!”

“I need to get it to the Great Movement Chamber,” Agatha continued in a low voice.

Another moment of silence, broken by a soft, nasty chuckle from all around.

“You are lying , little Heterodyne.”

“I— No, I’m not—”

“The source of my power is one of the family’s most carefully guarded secrets, kept even from the other members of the family. It is passed down from one ruling Heterodyne...to the next.”

Agatha was silent.

“Now why would you lie to me?”

“Because I didn’t want to disappoint you,” Agatha said softly. “I can’t claim my title, not yet. Not for a while. It’s too dangerous, and I’m not ready. My grandparents have done everything they can to keep me hidden in plain sight. I am not here to claim you. I’m only here to fix you.”

“I already know you're the Heterodyne,” Tarvek said, overloud.

Agatha dropped her hands. “What!”

Tarvek turned around again and gave her a slightly exasperated look. 

"You're Lucrezia's daughter—" 

"Not, I am afraid, definitive proof," the castle said. 

"—three Jägers obeyed your order to come and save me—" 

"I didn't order, I asked them for a favor," Agatha insisted.

"—and you have your grandfather's eyes." 

Agatha opened her mouth to protest, and gave up. She trusted Tarvek with her life. Surely she could trust him with her secret, too.  

"Alright, yes. But like I told the castle — I’m not here to make a claim. I’m here to fix the castle and keep the town safe.” She looked up at the ceiling. “There’s an army coming for me. The town is in danger, and it needs you to defend it.”

A long, silent moment. Agatha grew impatient.

“Are you going to help me or n—”

There was a muffled thoom and a gentle tremor beneath their feet. Tarvek and Agatha went pale.

“It’s started,” Tarvek said hoarsely. Agatha looked beseechingly up at the ceiling.

“Please,” she said. “I want to help you. Even if I’m not the Heterodyne now, I will be someday, and that means you and the town are my responsibility. I can’t stand around and do nothing!” 

“I will assist you,” the castle said, “on one condition. When I am repaired, you will go to the chapel and prove you are the Heterodyne. If you are not, I will crush you and your minion to ensure the family’s secrets are kept safe.”

“I’m not a minion,” Tarvek protested, indignant.

“Deal,” Agatha said, without hesitation.

“Agatha!”

“We need its help,” she said, firmly. “Besides, I am the Heterodyne. There’s no actual threat of crushing.”

“Mm, not entirely accurate,” the castle said. “There are many places within my walls where crushing is a significant possibility.”  

“We’re doomed,” Tarvek said.

“Third door on your left,” the castle said, “and down the stairs.”   

Chapter Text

Questor Kragen’s mask of imperturbability was, as it turned out, exactly that and nothing more.

“I don’t believe this!” she shrieked, bright red in the face. “I told him to give you twenty-four hours—”

The wall shook from a great impact and Kragen staggered, pinwheeling her arms and  only just managing to keep herself upright without the loss of more than her dignity.

“You are lucky you decided to wire the message instead of telling him in person,” Saturnus said, elbow-deep in the mechanical guts of an ancient machine one of the townspeople had hauled up from her aunt’s parlor, where it had been functioning as a drink rest. “He probably would have killed you instead of bothering with that ‘tear down the castle to rescue my son’ claptrap.”

Kragen was trying not to look too closely at the figure, which was decidedly unsettling, although it was hard to pinpoint why. It was just a metal statue of a man, sitting on a small plinth, his knees to his chest and his hands over his ears. And yet...

“He is a father who is afraid for his son,” she snapped, and flinched as a salvo of bullets whizzed by overhead. “His motives are understandable, even if his actions are foolish.”

“I sincerely hope you survive this,” Saturnus said. “Writing ‘I told you so’ on a tombstone just isn’t as satisfying. A-ha!”

Withdrawing his arms, he slammed the panel shut and patted it affectionately.

“Sounding off!” he bellowed. Everyone on that side of the wall ducked and covered their ears as Saturnus pulled the lever.

The machine shuddered. A dim red glow gathered in its eyes. Slowly, its mouth opened – and opened, and opened, the jaw distending down almost to the figure’s feet. Despite no other part of the statue moving, its expression was now somehow one of abject terror.

Kragen took a step back. Not far enough.

“What does—”

The screamer cannon let out a howl that shook bones and bowels. The soundwave struck the troops like an aural fist, sending an entire company to the ground, clutching their ears and writhing in pain. Saturnus grinned.

“Ah, just like the old days.” He glanced down at Kragen, collapsed on the battlement with blood oozing from her ears and nose, and tutted. “I did say.”

Two nearby minions picked up the unconscious woman under her arms and by her ankles, and began to hustle her towards the Great Hospital, passing Vole on his way up.

“All defences on de east vall is holding steady,” he announced.

“Good,” Saturnus grunted. “I’ll be over there to get to work on the cannons once I’m done here.”

Vole did not respond immediately. He moved to the edge of the wall and eyed the enemy forces with an appraising expression.

“It vill be noticed if I am gone,” he said, quietly. “My men vill notice. Der Baron vill hear, und he vill...ask qvestions.”

For a moment, Saturnus looked blank. He saw Vole’s claws were digging into the stone of the wall, his entire body tense.

Hy alvays know vut hyu need.

And right now, Saturnus needed Agatha back. 

“That’s not your responsibility,” Saturnus said.

“Den who vill hyu send?”

“Who can I send? Anyone the castle would recognize is far too old to navigate the traps it has no control over.”

Vole’s jaw clenched briefly, and when he spoke, it was clearly with great reluctance.

“De Jägers vould go.”

“That...is not an option,” Saturnus said.

“I know dey is under de town,” Vole said. “I is not shtupid. Dere is tunnels dey can take to get in und out of der kestle vitout being seen.”

“Yes, but I...I can’t ask them to do that.”

“Vy not? If hyu really dun vant de pack to know, send in Gkika—”

He stopped short. Saturnus squirmed in his chair, uncomfortably, unable to look him in the eye.

“None of the Jägers are a viable resource at this time,” Saturnus muttered.

“De generals dun know?”   Vole exclaimed, perhaps the tiniest hint of delight hidden in his shock.

“Keep your voice down!” Saturnus hissed, guiltily. Vole managed to lower his voice – but only just.

“Dey got — in Mechanicsburg — und dey dun even know?”

“Of course not! No one knows! She wasn’t even supposed to know!” Saturnus grimaced. “They’d keep their mouths shut, but they’d act differently. And Khrizhan wouldn’t be able to stop himself from playing the long game, moving things around to get ready for the big day. And I didn’t know you—”

Didn’t blame me. Wouldn’t want her dead. 

“...would want to know.”

Vole’s astonishment slid away. In a quiet sort of way that told Saturnus he knew the answer but did not believe it, he asked the question.

“Vould hyu haff told me, if hyu did know?”

“Yes,” Saturnus said, without hesitation. “Teodora and I could keep her hidden, but I would have felt better for having someone who could fight to keep her safe.”

Vole would have no interest in giving the citizens of Mechanicsburg the good news — hell, it would probably have given him great pleasure not to tell them. The generals didn’t trust Vole an inch; if anything, Vole telling them Agatha was the Heterodyne would probably make them less likely to believe it.

And Vole would never say a word to Klaus. He hadn’t. 

Vole’s expression had become very strange indeed.

“I cannot leave my post,” he said again. “Not unless somevun gives me a goot reason.”

“Enemy returning fire!” someone cried. “Shields up, watch your hands!”

The stone facade on the front of the wall slid aside, and a row of heavy metal plates were thrust out and up, forming a barrier two meters tall. Vole, significantly taller than that, dropped down.

So it was not suspicious that he was suddenly kneeling before his once-master.

“I iz not a Jӓger,” he said, as the barriers shuddered under the heavy bombardment, the ringing metal obscuring his words to any eavesdroppers. “But hyu vill alvays be my Heterodyne, und I vill alvays answer ven hyu call.”

Saturnus could not even name the emotion in his heart, let alone put it to words. Glancing around, confirming that no one was looking in their direction, he reached out and gripped the back of Vole’s neck, and hoped the look on his face was enough. Vole grasped Saturnus’ forearm gently.

“Ask,” he said, as one stating a fundamental truth of the universe, “und it vill be done.”

Saturnus released him and sat back.

“Let’s pretend we believe Aaronev, that he’s only here to rescue his boy. If we hand him over, they’ll leave. You’re our best bet for getting him out of there alive. That you would also be rescuing Teodora’s ward is merely…fortunate.”

The projectiles abruptly ceased, and Vole risked rising to his feet.

“Dot iz a very good idea. I vill tell my men. Dey vill report to hyu for orders.” 

“You’re a good man, Vole,” Saturnus said. Vole grinned a wide, arrogant smile, looking for a moment like his old self, as if nothing had changed. 

“No I’z not,” he said. “Dot’s vy hyu like me.” 

He disappeared down the stairs.

Overhead there was a sharp whistling sound, growing closer.

“Look out!” someone screamed.

A massive cannonball wrapped in flaming pitch soared over the barriers and struck one of the taller buildings, tearing through the wall. The windows exploded outwards and an acrid black smoke came pouring out. Before anyone had a chance to react, the sound came again. This time, it came down in the middle of the street; people scrambled to get clear. Some did. Some were caught in the wave of fire and shrapnel when it landed.

Boring, but effective. The classics were classic for a reason.

“Firefighters to the square!” Carson called, the last word catching on a cough as he got a lungful of smoke.

“You shouldn’t be up here,” Saturnus told him. “You’re too old for this.”

“Oh, talk about construct and monster!” Carson exclaimed, outraged. “We’re the same age!” 

“Yes,” said a dry voice behind them. “I was thinking the same thing.”

A nervous look flickered over Saturnus’ face, hurriedly hidden away as he turned to look at Dr Sun. The man loomed over the Heterodyne, arms folded across his chest, pinning his patient in place with a glare.

“Dr Sun,” Saturnus greeted him, excessively polite. “Shouldn’t you be down there?”

“My staff are working,” Sun said. “I am here to find out what in the world you think you are doing.”

“I’m defending my town, what does it look like?”

Sun’s calm exterior cracked like a skull in a hydraulic press. “In your condition? Have you lost your mind?”

“I’m doing better than ever! You said it yourself!”

“I also said that you should avoid putting any stress on your body, and in case you had not realized, this is an extremely stressful situation!”

“I won’t hide in some bunker while my people risk their lives!” Saturnus refused. “Heterodynes have always led from the front!”

“Not when they’d had two strokes and a heart attack!”

The shields snapped up again. This time, electricity flashed and crackled up and down the length. People flinched away and screamed; several were thrown back and lay twitching and smoking.

“Keep your hands off the damn shields, you fools!” Saturnus bellowed. To Dr Sun, he said, “If you want to have someone standing by to get my heart going if it stops again, go ahead and waste a minion, but I am not leaving.”

“I will not hesitate to remove you bodily from this wall, if I must,” Dr Sun said.

Saturnus’ hand wrapped around his beard and dragged him down so they were nose to nose.

“I am not my son,” he said, in a low and dangerous voice. “I am the last of the glorious monsters, the Heterodynes who haunted Europa’s nightmares. Speak to me with respect, for I will not hesitate to cut out your tongue and feed it to you.”

Dr Sun did not so much as blink.

“Very well,” he said coolly. “Plan B it is.”

“Saturnus Heterodyne!”

Saturnus released Sun’s beard, whipping his chair around — it really did respond beautifully — to see Teodora on the street below. Her foot was tapping with impatience.

“That is cheating,” Saturnus snapped at Sun, his cheeks going red.

“No,” Sun said, “it is fighting dirty.”

“Get down here right now!”

“I am not leaving,” Saturnus said to Sun, very stiffly. “I am simply going down there to argue with her.”

“As you say,” Sun said, as mild as any man who’d ever gotten what he wanted.

“It isn’t even a big army!” Saturnus called to Teodora as he descended the stairs. “Three airships hardly qualifies as exerting myself!”

It was strange to be back in Castle Heterodyne again, after so many years and so many things had happened. Memories lurked around every corner, and even the good ones had turned sour. Not that there were many good ones, at least not in here. Vole had never liked the castle. His first day working as a boot boy, it had trapped him in a loop of four rooms and “forgotten” about him.

Fortunately, the Heterodyne had found Vole's solution — to pick up a fireplace poker and start smashing every breakable object in sight — extremely funny. 

“Why, if it isn’t a Jäger, wandering in out of the cold! And — is that young Vole I see?”

The castle’s voice was exactly as annoying as he remembered it. Vole knew much better than to try and ignore it.

“Yez, dot iz me.”

“What a pleasant surprise! I wasn’t expecting you for another seventy-nine years!”

“A girl und boy haff snuck in here. Lord Saturnus vants dem back out," Vole said, wondering what that meant. Better not to ask. 

“This would be the new Heterodyne?” the castle asked, innocently, and let out an echoing chuckle at the look on Vole’s face. “Oh, yes, she tried to hide it from me, but she is a terrible liar.”

“Vhich vay did dey go?”

“Mmm...perhaps I shall tell you later. The young lady has brought a device to correct some of my... higher functioning issues.”

“Maybe she tinks it vill, but she iz only just become a madgirl. Most of der stuff she built exploded.”

There was a slight pause.

“Ah. I see.”

Vole was sure it sounded disappointed.

“Unfortunately, they have already passed beyond my reach, into one of the dead zones.”

Vole sniffed the air, and quickly caught Agatha’s scent, fresh and sweet, standing out against the stale, dusty air like blood on the snow. He followed it, moving quickly.

Unfortunately, the castle came with him.

“Master Barry’s daughter, perhaps? Or Master Bill’s? She does have the blonde hair.”

“I dun know.”

“Very interesting either way. How do you feel about that?”

Vole grunted irritably and did not answer. Not that that discouraged the Castle. It never did. 

“Angry? Excited? Nervous? Joyous? Enraged?”

“It dun matter how I feel,” Vole snapped. “If I don’t get her out of here, she von’t live long enough to be de Heterodyne anyvay!”

“Take a left here,” the castle said, abruptly.

“She vent dot vay.”

“This will be a shortcut to the last place I saw them.”

Vole hesitated. It was always smart to be wary when the castle was unexpectedly helpful. At that moment, he heard the sound of a distant barrage of cannon fire, and ground his teeth together. If he didn’t get the two brats out of here fast, he’d miss all the fighting and killing.

Vole turned left and nearly smacked straight into General Higgs.   

Chapter Text

For a moment, the mismatched Jägers stared at each other, frozen in shock. It was Higgs who recovered first, slowly turning an irritable glare up to the ceiling.

“Shortcut, huh?”

“Teehee.”

Vole took a step back. Was it worth it to try and run? All Higgs had to do was tell the castle what had really happened, then stand back and watch it turn Vole into mincemeat. The hairs on the back of his neck rose when Higgs looked at him, even though the general’s expression was as placid as ever. Higgs had not been there that night, but it was impossible that he did not know.

But instead of trying to kill him, Higgs simply asked

“You here for the boy or the girl?”

“Lord Heterodyne said dot Sturmvoraus is attacking because ve kidnapped his son, zo returning him may end de fighting.”

“And you believe that?”

“No. But it means dot I can come in here vitout people asking qvestions.”

Higgs tipped his head slightly to one side, mulling this over.

“He knew I vould bring dem both back safe,” Vole said, trying not to sound defensive. “Same as ven I brought her back ven she ran avay.”

“Thought you were working for the Baron, now.”

“He iz my Heterodyne,” Vole said, flatly. Higgs considered this, too.

“S’pose I can’t exactly tell you to go home,” he said at last.

“I vould not go if hyu did,” Vole snapped. “I dun follow hyu orders anymore. Vut iz hyu doing here?”

“Someone had to fly the questor out here. By the time I parked the ship and got inside the walls, I heard Lady Teodora’s ward had gone runnin’ into the castle with the Sturmvoraus kid. Figured I’d lend a hand by gettin’ them back out.”

“You can work together!” the castle said, with delight. “It will be a wonderful bonding experience for the two of you. A chance to overcome your differences!”

Vole and Higgs briefly wore the same exhausted expression. 

“I don’t suppose it told you where exactly they were going, did it?”

“It’s a secret!” the castle said smugly. Both men rolled their eyes. “An extremely secret location that only the Heterodyne may—”

“Great Movement Chamber,” Higgs said, immediately.

“Hey!”  

“I vuz following their scent. Dey vent back dis vay.”

They backtracked to the main hallway. Vole scented the air.

“Dis vay. Ve should hurry. Dey haff a head st—”

He stopped. Higgs was not following. The general had gone very still, his eyes very wide. He was breathing in deeply through his nose. Vole could not stop himself from smirking.

“Someting wrong?” he asked, innocently. Higgs was pale. Vole had never seen him so unsettled.

“But...Teodora said dot she vuzn’t...She told us dot she vuzn’t…She told der Baron—”

“De more people who know a secret, de harder it iz to keep,” Vole pointed out airily. There was no point trying to lie to Higgs, but he was not going to go back to Lord Saturnus and say that he had confirmed anything to anyone.

Not when Lord Saturnus would have trusted him — even after everything — to be the sole keeper of the great secret.

“Hyu knew,” Higgs said, still with that wide-eyed look of confusion and — Vole was delighted to see — betrayal. “He told hyu?”

“Novun needed to tell me anyting about anyvun,” Vole said, which was true. “Hy got a vorking nose, same as hyu.” He was unable to stop himself from adding, “But he said he vould haff told me, if he could.” 

Higgs reached into his pocket and drew out a pipe, which he lit with hands that were steady, despite his shock. He puffed on it a few times, then shook out the match. Slowly, his expression faded back into its usual stoic mask.

“It makes sense,” he said, calm again. “Keepin’ a Heterodyne hidden in plain sight like that is no easy thing. It’d be a difficult secret to keep, and the Baron is a man who notices things.” 

“Let me go!”

Vole and Higgs quickly darted out of sight. Vole pressed himself to the wall behind a pillar; Higgs ducked into an alcove that had once held a decorative suit of armor. Judging by the blood trail, someone had taken too close a look, and afterwards the armor had wandered off instead of returning to its post.

The voices were coming from further down the hallway, around the corner.

“I’m not going to ask you again, kid,” said a man’s voice, sharp and dangerous, like broken glass in clear water. “How did you get the collar off?”

“Maybe it was too big and slipped off,” suggested another voice. “I didn’t even know the Baron sent kids in here. What did you do , use the other orphans as fuel?”

“I’m not a prisoner! I’m looking for someone!”

A groan from the first voice.

“Oh, please tell me you didn’t come in here trying to rescue Daddy from the big bad castle, that’s too twee for words—" 

The thud and strangled gasp of someone taking a blow to the stomach interrupted the sharp voice, and a moment later a teenaged boy came charging around the corner.

Higgs snagged the boy by the arm on his way past, and was surprised by the speed and ferocity with which he retaliated. Had Higgs not been a Jäger — hell, had he not been as old as he was — the boy almost certainly would have had his shoulder out of the socket in seconds. As it was, Higgs had to use the momentum to swing the kid into the alcove with him, and the stone wall to knock him breathless.

Higgs put a finger to his lips as the two prisoners ran past them — straight into Vole. Keeping the boy facing away from the violence, Higgs looked him over. No prisoner’s collar, clean, well-fed, and about the right age.

“Alright, kid,” Higgs said in a friendly voice, “where was the last place you saw her?”

“Her who?” the boy asked, getting his breath back faster than Higgs would have expected. He was trying to look puzzled, but his wariness bled through.

“Relax,” Higgs said. “We’re not prisoners. Back there’s Captain Vole of Mechanicsburg security.” He touched the brim of his hat. “And I’m Airman First Class Axel Higgs. I was piloting the ship for the questor who came to find out what happened to you.”

To Higgs’ surprise, the boy turned ashen.

“For me? But— But— He wasn’t supposed to notice!”

Higgs raised an eyebrow.

“Kind of hard not to notice when someone like you goes missing.”

The boy let out a moan of horror, sagging in Higgs’ grip.

“When I heard you’d gone into Castle Heterodyne, well — I’m from Mechanicsburg, originally. Figured I could come in and get you out safely.”

“How did you know I was in here? Does everyone know I’m in here?” He was beginning to panic. 

“It’s common knowledge. Didn’t Miss Sannikova tell you she was leavin’ a note?”

“Miss who?”

“Who de hell is dot?” Vole, shaking blood off his claws as he returned, frowned down at the boy. 

“It’s the Sturmvoraus kid.” Uncertainty bloomed. “…isn’t he?”

Vole snorted.

“No. De Sturmvoraus kid has Schtorm Lords written all ofer him. He’s got red hair und glasses.”

“I’m not Tarvek! I came to stop Tarvek!” The now-mystery boy bristled indignantly — and Vole was right, he didn’t look like the descendant of Andronicus Valois, not by a long shot. He had a golden complexion that spoke of at least one parent from outside Europa, shaggy brown hair, and a proud aquiline nose. 

“Stop him from vut?” Vole asked.

“From doing…whatever his plan is this time!” he cried, waving his arms around.

“So den who iz hyu?”

The hair on the back of Higgs’ neck began to rise.

“De Baron has a son,” Gkika said, delicately stirring tea into her whiskey. Higgs raised his eyebrows.

“Does he, now?”

“Mm. He keeps him a secret, mixed in vit de odder kids on de airship. Dey is calling him—”

“I’m Gilgamesh Holzfäller.”

Chapter Text

He said more after that – Higgs saw his lips form the words Castle Wulfenbach and questor’s airship – but could not hear it over the roaring in his ears. The Baron’s son was in Castle Heterodyne, and he’d only gotten there because Higgs had brought the ship down to land so he could get inside the castle. 

“Kid,” Higgs interrupted, “what in the five flamin’ hells do you think yer doin’ here?”

“I told you, I’m stopping Tarvek!”

Vole snorted. “Wrong vay around, keed. I know for a fact dot de Sturmvoraus kid is vorking against his poppa. He nearly ran himself to death to get here to varn Lord Saturnus dot de army vuz coming.”

Gilgamesh – Higgs would bet his hat the boy went by Gil – scowled, his eyes dark.

“Yeah,” he said. “He’s very good at making you think he’s your friend. He can keep it up for years . But in the end—” Gil gritted his teeth. “ I trusted him too. And he used me to get at my— At information about the ruling families. I know there was a file on the Heterodynes, and I know he’s going to try to use whatever he learned to…do whatever it is he’s planning to do! But I’m going to stop him.”

“How?” Vole demanded. “Look at hyu, hyu is just a leedle kid! Und running around here, by hyuself? Vut vuz hyu plan, hope hyu can get close enough to him dot ven der kestle crushes hyu, it gets hyu blood in his eyes?”

“Now, now,” the castle chided. “My security systems are programmed to perceive even non-Mechanicsburg children as non-threatening.” It chuckled, fondly. “That Dante. Under all the bloodthirsty mania, he really was a big softy.”

“I’m fifteen!” Gil insisted, affronted.

“Oh, well, watch your step, then.”

“I’m not leaving.” Gil’s face was pale, but determined. “If you drag me out, I’ll come back in, and if you try and lock me up, I’ll just escape again.”

“Again?” Higgs repeated.

“The castle dropped me in some padded cell with a bunch of baby toys.”

“Nonsense! No child has ever escaped the time out room!”

“I took a bunch of the toys apart and built a blowtorch to melt the lock,” Gil said with barely concealed pride.

“Well—!” the castle exclaimed, indignant.

“Alright,” Higgs said before this could escalate further. The boy was definitely a Spark, although considering his father, that wasn’t much of a surprise. “We’re already tryin’ to get two kids out of here alive. One more shouldn’t be that much harder. Just stick close and we’ll make sure you get out of here in one piece.”

And if we can’t, I sure hope someone can think of a way to explain it to your father that doesn’t end with him turning this town into a smoking crater.

They followed Agatha’s trail in relative silence. Only once they passed into a dead zone and Gil was safely distracted examining the paintings on the walls did Higgs speak.

“Last time we talked, you were pretty adamant about not servin’ the Heterodynes anymore.”

“Hy don’t,” Vole snapped. “De line is rotten. But Lord Saturnus is not. He is still vun of de true Heterodynes, und ven he calls, Hy— I answer.”

“He call often?”

“No,” Vole admitted tightly. “Only now, to giff me an excuse der Baron vould believe. De odder times, he did not need to call me. I knew vut he needed me to do.”

There was a brief pause in conversation as they dodged floor spikes, a passing cloud of blood bats, and a fire-breathing cuckoo clock that nearly roasted Higgs’ hat.

“Vut did hyu tell de kestle?” Vole asked as Higgs rubbed soot off his hat’s ribbon. Gil, who had gotten a little too close to an oil painting of a drum, was wiggling his fingers in his ears, trying to get rid of the ringing. "It said it vuzn't expectink to see me for anodder seventy-sometink years."

“You got a hundred years ostracization for refusin’ to acknowledge the new Heterodyne,” Higgs said simply, and set the hat back on his head.

It was a good lie, Vole had to admit. A serious crime for a Jäger, but not so severe as to invoke the castle’s wrath. A long enough stint that the castle would be likely to forget about him before the end of it — and a believable punishment for the crime, too. A hundred years of forced separation from the pack would be a torment to any Jäger. 

Fortunately, Vole was not a Jäger, so he didn’t care.

Especially fortunate because Vole’s banishment was not a temporary one. No comfort could be taken in knowing that the loneliness was finite.

But he didn’t care, so it didn’t matter.

“Iz dot vut hyu told de pack?”

“Didn’t tell them anything. Partly so they wouldn’t try and hunt you down as soon as the masters weren’t lookin’. Partly because we didn’t know how they’d react to someone breakin’ the troth. Some of them figured it out anyway — or at least suspect. Lots of rumors out there about you.”

Vole sneered.

“Hyu should haff told dem,” he said. “Vould be good for dem to know how veak de troth really is.”

“Now you’re just tryin’ to pick a fight,” Higgs said amiably. Vole scowled at him. Before he had to think of something to say, Gil stopped and looked back at them.

“Do you hear that or is it just my ears ringing?”

“Hear what?”

“That buzzing noise.”

“I dun tink de castle has any killer bees,” Vole said. He looked at Higgs. “Unless dey added dot after I left?”

“Not like bees,” Gil said. “More electrical.” He cocked his head. “I think it might be coming from the walls.”

The castle began to scream. 

“Don’t know how you thought that was going to end,” Carson said, shifting the little model clanks into new places on the map to reflect Sturmhalten’s latest push. “You’ve never won an argument against her in your life.”

“Who asked you?” Saturnus snapped, yanking a loose wire out of the ray gun he was repairing. He pointed a screwdriver at a group of model soldiers. “They’re trying to circle the town. Sturmvoraus is making his way to the north wall; von Blitzengaard to the south. With the proper angle you should be able to get the fire spitters to throw far enough to herd them back into place.”

“They’ll probably just back out of range and try again.”

“Do it anyway. It’ll keep them occupied while we bolster defences on both sides—“

Suddenly he slammed the screwdriver down on the table and slumped over. The nurse in the corner jumped to her feet, but Carson waved her back down. 

“This isn’t sustainable!” Saturnus said. “We can’t beat them back; all we can do is hold them off!”

“Mechanicsburg has survived sieges before.”

“Yes, with the castle up and running! Half our defences are down from that alone, never mind the damage Wulfenbach spent years doing! Our only chance is to hope we can fend them off until help arrives, and who knows when that will be? We don’t even know if our message made it out of the valley before Sturmvoraus had the telegraph wires sabotaged! Klaus didn’t consider this serious enough to send more than a single questor, and it could be days before he gets suspicious enough to send someone to check on us.”

Oh, and didn’t it burn to say those words. Until help arrives. Needing Klaus to send someone to check on them, like a babysitter to an unruly child. To have their survival depend on an outsider. Mechanicsburg had never asked anyone’s help for anything — admittedly, because there was no one to ask, but even if they could have asked, they wouldn’t have!    

Saturnus rubbed his face and leaned back in his chair.

“Go to Gkika. Tell her to gather any Jägers who can run and get them ready to go.”

“You said there weren’t enough to put in the fight.”

“I’m not going to have them fight. As soon as Vole gets Agatha out of the castle, I want the Jägers to take her and Teodora east through the deep tunnels. Get them out of the valley and wire word to the Baron. Even if Mechanicsburg falls before Klaus gets here, Aaronev will have to waste time picking over our bones looking for her.”

“Miss Sannikova won’t like that,” Carson said. Saturnus smiled. There was absolutely no humor in it.

“Of course not. They’ll have to drag her out of here by force.” In a distant voice, almost to himself, he murmured, “She would make a fine Heterodyne.”

“My lord?”

Saturnus shook himself and gave Carson a rueful smile.

“Were it not for an accident of birth,” he said. Then he scowled. “Go on, get going. I gave you orders.”

Carson opened the door, stepped out into the street, and collapsed forward with a strangled cry. He landed on the ground in a heap. Saturnus rushed out after him as people came running, stooped the chair down to reach for him, wondering where the blood was, what had hit him—

The streetlights flickered and went out. Panicked shouts rose from the walls as the shields slumped in their holdings, leaving the defenders exposed. Water stopped running in the fountains; clocks stopped mid-tick; several of the wall-mounted weapons sputtered and died.

Everyone in Mechanicsburg suddenly became aware that, for their entire lives, they had been hearing a faint humming noise, one that had been so constant and consistent their brains had tuned it out before they were old enough to form memories.

And now it had stopped.

Saturnus rarely felt afraid, but now a cold wave swept over his mind, numbing his chest and the tips of his fingers. He did not need to guess what had happened.

The Heterodyne had killed the castle.

The first of the Geisterdamen breached the walls.

Chapter Text

The silence smashed down on them like a hammer, louder than the screaming. The lights had gone out, leaving them in darkness – real darkness, the kind you only ever got in places where the sun was never intended to reach. Not even the light of the Dyne or the glow of the salamanders could reach them here. And yet somehow, Tarvek could still feel how big the Great Movement Chamber was. It made the ancient parts of his brain want to find a crevice to hide in, before something came swooping down on him.

A soft whimpering began beside him. Agatha was trying not to cry. Following her voice and where he’d seen her last, Tarvek felt around. When his hand touched Agatha’s arm, she screamed and lashed out.

“Shh! It’s okay! It’s just me!” he hissed, not sure why he felt the need to stay quiet. Instantly, Agatha latched onto him.

“I killed it!” she wailed, her voice echoing in the emptiness. “He was right, this was an awful thing to do, I ruined it, I ruined it like I always ruin everything, I killed it!”

“You don’t know that,” Tarvek said, gently. He could smell the thick, acrid smoke of melted wiring, and prayed it was from the electric overload device, not the castle. “You were trying to turn it off, and now it’s off. Okay, maybe it didn’t go as smoothly as we’d like, but we can’t assume we can’t turn it back on again. We just need to get a little light to see what we’re—”

A heavy clunk echoed in the darkness.

Silence.

The slow, drawn-out rasp of metal on stone.

Every hair on Tarvek’s body stood on end; every inch of skin tingled. A voice came from the darkness, a low, sing-song hiss that echoed off the walls.

“I hear you, little rats…”

Instantly, Tarvek grabbed Agatha and dragged her away, fumbling blindly in the dark, moving away from that voice . He could feel her pulse where he had his hand wrapped around her wrist, pounding in time with his own.

The metallic scraping sound came again. Tarvek remembered seeing a break in the floor on the other side of the room, a great fissure where one of the many explosions that destroyed the castle had pushed the stone of the floor up and out. 

“What have you done, little rats? What have y/y/ou done?”

A clank, Tarvek thought, recognizing the distinctive sound of a vocal generator’s needle skipping in place. That wasn’t necessarily better than an organic creature, but at least Tarvek knew what they were working with.

Tarvek’s hand struck something solid; instinctively, frantically, he identified switches, readouts, dials, and buttons. One of the big machine banks he’d seen when they arrived. He found the edge and pulled Agatha behind it.

The scraping sound was getting closer, or at least louder.

“I will/ill crush you, little rat/rat/rats, and th/then I will fi/ind the Lady Lucre/e/ezia and she will/ill pay.”

Tarvek tried to remember where the exit had been, relative to their position, and then which direction he’d run in to get away from the voice. It was no use. He’d have to find a wall and hope there would be a door or stairs in there somewhere.

“Where are you, little rats?” the voice hissed, now much, much closer. Tarvek swallowed a scream.

Tarvek wasn’t sure if it was him or Agatha who was trembling. He found the edge of the machine again and leaned out, straining to see.

There in the sea of darkness were two little green pinpricks of light. They floated this way and that, winking in and out of sight.

And then suddenly both lights were visible and blazed brightly and Tarvek realized they were eyes in the dark, eyes that had seen them, eyes that charged towards them and Tarvek screamed and Agatha screamed and he was too afraid to move and he could hear metal joints grinding and the eyes were getting closer and then—

Then came a gust of air, a breeze generated by something moving past them very quickly, and the eyes vanished from view. There was a loud crash and a snarl, and light returned.

Agatha and Tarvek flinched and screamed again, this time as much at the suddenness of the light as the fear, but all the match illuminated was a solemn-faced human man. Their screams petered into a baffled silence.

“You’ll be Tarvek Sturmvoraus and Agatha Sannikova, I’m bettin’,” he said.

They nodded, dumbly.

From outside the glow of the match they could hear the sounds of a fight, metallic and animal squeals overlapping. A sound like a crowbar thwacking into a piece of beef was followed by a sound like a larger crowbar being banged against a piece of sheet metal. The man did not seem particularly concerned about this.

The match went out; there was a brief fumbling in the dark, then a scratch and hiss and once more, light came back to the world.

“Should be a lantern around here somewhere,” the man muttered to himself. “Hold tight.”

They did not hold tight. Like ducklings, Agatha and Tarvek followed this stranger and his halo of safety around the room until he finally located an ancient oil lantern and lit it. The darkness retreated as the wick caught and burned. The rest of the man came into view.

He was as normal as his face (which was not always a given, in Mechanicsburg) — a human man much younger than Tarvek had initially thought. He wore a striped red shirt, blonde hair pulled back in a small tail, and a crisp white hat bearing a familiar symbol of a winged castle tower.

“You’re a Wulfenbach soldier?” Tarvek exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“Not a soldier, sir, just an airman.”

A familiar figure flew past them and crashed into one of the big machines before slumping to the ground.

“Vole?” Agatha exclaimed. Vole didn’t seem to hear her; he snarled and launched himself forward again, back into the darkness and out of sight. There was a crunching sound, followed by a humorous sproing!

“Name’s Axel Higgs,” the airman said, casually, as if nothing had happened. “Originally from Mechanicsburg, actually. I flew in the questor who was going to go to Sturmhalten to investigate—”

“A questor? ” Tarvek exclaimed. “A questor? The Baron got a message that Sturmhalten was marching on Mechanicsburg and he only sent a single questor?”

“No,” Higgs said, patiently. “He got a message that Mechanicsburg kidnapped the heir to Sturmhalten, and a message that Sturmhalten had tried to prevent an officer of the Empire from leaving with a citizen of Mechanicsburg. Then he sent a questor.”

Agatha and Tarvek stared up at him in silent horror. Vole went rolling by, tangled with an unidentifiable mass of feathers and metal.

“You need a hand?” Higgs called.

“No!”

“N/no!”

Agatha burst into tears, huge, wracking, childlike sobs of despair at the utter unfairness of it all, so overwhelming there wasn’t even room for her to feel embarrassed about crying like a baby in front of Tarvek.  

Everyone — even Vole and his opponent — froze in alarm.

“It’s all my fault!” she wailed. “Everything is my fault, and I just keep making it worse!”

“It’s not your—” Tarvek tried.

“Yes it is! ” Agatha shouted. She began to gesture wildly, tears still streaming down her face, every breath shuddering. “I ran away because I knew I wouldn’t be a strong enough Heterodyne, and instead of disappearing I get an army coming after me and now the entire town is in danger! Then I drag you into this death trap , the only person who can prove Mechanicsburg isn’t the one to blame, so even if the Baron does show up, he’ll probably help burn this place to the ground!

“And I did that for nothing, because the whole reason I needed you here was to help me fix the castle, to protect the town from the danger I put it in! But it turns out I didn’t need that locket, it wasn’t the locket at all, it was just me! I ruined everything because I am useless and broken and stupid, and I killed the castle!”

“You did not kill me, child. I am right he/here.”

Agatha, breathing hard, throat sore from screaming, could do nothing but stare at the clank in confusion.

“What?”

With difficulty, Vole and his enemy extricated themselves from their death grip. Tarvek’s jaw dropped as the clank rose to its full height, its ragged wings stretching out behind it. The end of the wing whacked Vole on the chin on its way up. 

“It’s one of the Muses!” Tarvek gasped. “The wings, it’s— That’s Otilia! The Muse of Protection!”

The Muse glared at him.

“N/no. I wear the for/form/shell of what was one/once the Muse Otil/ilia. I am Castle Heterodyne.”

Everyone stared.

“But I killed y—”

“Stop that,” the Muse-shaped castle said, covering up its discomfort with a stern tone. “The system/em may be dam/damaged, but damage can be repair/aired. As long as my consciousness remains active, I/I am not dead.” It frowned at her. “I was bui/built to house a fam/amily of mad/mad scientists who would not know/ow restraint if you wel/welded it to their foreheads. There are man/any safeguards against this ex/exac/act possibility/ty.”

Agatha sniffled and wiped her eyes. Higgs politely offered her a handkerchief and she blew her nose with an extremely ladylike sound.

“You don’t sound like the castle,” Tarvek said suspiciously.

“Talks like der kestle,” Vole said.

“Of course I do/don’t sound like myse/self,” the castle said, irritably. It gestured at the clank body it was housed in. “I am in he/here, using this mechan/ism. My voice is generated/ed by the throat built by van/van Rijn. But the form is not the self, and th/this flimsy chassis cont/tain/ains the full and complete consciousness of Castle Heterodyne/dyne.”

“Are you sure?” Agatha asked.

“Yes, I am su—” It stopped. Its gaze locked onto Agatha’s hands, still clutching Higgs’ handkerchief. “When were you pro/ven?” the castle demanded.

“Proven?”

The clank darted forward and a grip like a manacle snapped around her left wrist, dragging it towards itself. It peered at it, back and front, then dropped it and grabbed her right.

Whatever it sought, it did not find.

“You lie,” it hissed. “You are not the He/Heterodyne! You have no/ot been tested!”

“I am,” Agatha insisted, dropping the handkerchief and clawing frantically at the clank’s fingers. “I’m a Heterodyne, but I can’t be the Heterodyne yet, it’s too dangerous! I wanted to fix you without anyone knowing it was me, so I could—”

“Liar!” it roared, and Agatha cried out as the grip threatened to crush her wrist to powder. “You sta/nd in the Great Movement Chamber/ber, where only/y the Heterodyne/dyne may tr/ead! Blood must/must/must tell!”

Higgs grabbed the clank’s arm at the shoulder and tore it off.

Tarvek’s gasp of horror echoed in the cavernous room, and then all was silent.

Everyone looked at the ragged remains of the shoulder.

Everyone looked at Higgs.

“That fight really did a number on you,” he said conversationally. “That thing just popped right off.”

Everyone looked at the clank’s shoulder again. Several wires sparked and snapped. The shorn metal glinted fresh and razor sharp in the lantern light.

Everyone looked at Higgs again.

“That was unne/ne/necessary,” the clank said, put out.

Casually, the airman tugged one of the exposed wires in the detached arm, and the clank’s fingers loosened. Agatha quickly pulled free, rubbing her wrist.

“Think for a second, would you? Test or no test, the only way she could know about this place is if someone told her. Lord Saturnus wouldn’t tell her if he didn’t think she was the real thing.”

“And we already made a deal with…uh, with you,” Tarvek pointed out. “The other you agreed to let us in here if Agatha promised that as soon as you’re working again, she’ll go and do the test and prove she’s the Heterodyne.”

“And if she is no/not?”

“Then you crush us both,” Tarvek said, quite casually. Vole and Higgs made noises of alarm; Tarvek waved a languid hand as if he had not had the same reaction. “It’s irrelevant. She is the Heterodyne. We’re not in danger.”

“Then she is not in/in dan/danger,” the castle said, coolly. “You are not a Heterodyne/dyne.”

“I’m her loyal minion,” Tarvek said, with a face so blank it was not even innocent, (an expression he had perfected when facing down Von Pinn with Gi—). Agatha opened her mouth. Tarvek made a very soft noise in his throat. Agatha closed her mouth again.

“Minion,” the clank repeated.

“Yes. Surely that’s acceptable? Any minion would say so — her secrets are my secrets.”

“I knew it! ”

Tarvek had just enough time to recognize the voice and see the face flying towards him before Gil Holzfӓller collided with him and sent them both crashing to the ground.

Saturnus had not seen Geisterdamen before. Vole and Tarvek had described them in some detail, but while both had mentioned that they sometimes rode around on giant spiders, neither had seen any. Saturnus had not quite been able to reconcile that with the image of moon-pale women with empty eyes and silver hair.

Now that one was clambering over the walls, though, he could see it. No low-slung, oversized house spiders, these: the Geisterdamen’s mounts carried snow-white bodies on long, thin legs with smooth, delicate movements that mirrored those of their riders. Thirty years ago, he’d have ordered at least one to be captured alive so he could get a good look at it, regardless of the cost in minions.

Right now, he wanted them burned to ashes.

The spiders pulled themselves up and over the edge of the wall carefully and slowly, but the moment they had at least six legs on solid ground, they took off. It was disconcerting to watch — though they did not move quickly, the length of their legs meant each ponderous step ate up the distance.

“Deal with him, inside and out of the way,” Saturnus told the nurse, who was crouched over Carson’s still-unconscious form. He hefted the ray gun he’d been working on. “I will deal with this.”

He walked his chair out of the house and aimed for a Geisterdame who had the gall to be walking her spider right up his street as if she owned the place. Before she had a chance to notice him, he pulled the trigger.

The blast took the spider’s head clean off. As it keeled over, its rider leapt free and landed on a nearby roof. Looking down at the ruined corpse of her spider, she let out a shriek of rage and — to his surprise — grief.

And ran away.

Saturnus stared after her, baffled, as she raced across the rooftops out of sight. It couldn’t be that easy. It was never that easy.

Overhead he heard a rhythmic tap tap tap. Swinging the chair around, he saw another one of the great pale spiders racing along the rooftop. The rider hadn’t even stopped to strike him down, even after he’d attacked her comrade.

All along the walls, the pattern repeated. The invaders lashed out when they first came over the wall, silver swords and crescent-tipped spears cutting down anyone who did not get out of the way fast enough, or dared to try and fight back. Once they were across the wall, they ignored all but the most immediate threats in favor of moving deeper into the town.

Towards the castle.

Agatha, Saturnus realized, unsatisfying triumph becoming terror that seized his heart. They’re here for Agatha — and we told them exactly where she was.

“Stop them!” he bellowed. “Wulfenbach troops, stay to the walls! Mechanicsburgers, you know the roads, bring them down before they reach the castle!”

A scream of pure terror cut the air. As it turned out, the spiders could move quickly, when they wanted to, and this one was racing down the streets so quickly the girl thrashing in its rider’s arms was little more than a blur of blonde hair and green dress.

The girl screamed, “Papa! Papa!”

Saturnus clutched at his chest, gasping for air. Blind terror faded away, but the damage had been done. His heart was beating too fast, too erratically; it didn’t feel like the heart attack had, but it sure didn’t feel like it was going to end well.

The Geisterdame had reached the wall, her spider dancing through a rain of scattered shots at its spindly legs. No one wanted to aim at its body, or its rider, lest they hit the still-screaming child. The girl’s father was screaming, too, a sound Saturnus had only ever heard once before— 

—and Saturnus was in the castle and his home was a ruin and Bill was hunched over a small shroud screaming and screaming and blind to Teodora or Barry and there was nothing Saturnus could do, he couldn’t even comfort his own son—

Someone shoved a hand into Saturnus’ face. A sharp, chemical smell scoured his sinuses, throat, and lungs. He jerked away, but already he felt his heartbeat slow. His lungs pulled in a proper breath and his vision cleared, the darkness in his sight sliding away. He didn’t bother to thank the nurse who hovered over him, ashen-faced; he shoved her aside and watched in thwarted fury as the Geisterdame’s spider began to cross over the wall.

Two figures hurtled upwards into view, right in front of her.

Even from behind Saturnus could see she was too startled to react, completely unprepared for an attack from outside Mechanicsburg. For a moment, no one moved. Even the newcomers seemed to hover at the apex of their trajectory.

Then they came down.

One figure dropped straight and latched its hands onto the spider’s head. The spider’s delicate balance was not prepared for the sudden uncentered weight. Screeching, it fell forward, legs scrabbling for purchase.

Its rider flailed to keep both her seat and her grip on the girl, who had gotten one arm free and, being born and raised in Mechanicsburg, was trying to claw her captor’s eyes out. 

The second fighter landed on the spider’s left fore flank, sending it even further off balance until it was sideways. One hand grabbed the girl by the belt, the other buried claws deep in the Geisterdame’s shoulder, breaking grip and bone. 

Just as spider and rider toppled out of view, the second figure jumped, hurling the girl back over the wall and into her father’s arms. To Saturnus’ surprise, it did not follow her, but latched onto the edge of the wall, feet balanced on the flat stone of the parapet, hands gripping the very edge.

Saturnus was too far to see a face, but did see it doff an oversized tricorn hat bedecked with half a bird's worth of feathers.

“Master Saturnus!” the Jäger called over the sudden eruption of screams and howls. “Ve haz come to de rescue!”  

Chapter Text

It had been a very stressful week for the generals.

First, an urgent communication had come from Sturmhalten, accusing Mechanicsburg of sending a young girl and a Jäger posing as a Wulfenbach officer to infiltrate Sturmhalten Castle under false pretenses. Despite the efforts of the Sturmhalten forces, the two kidnapped Master Tarvek Sturmvoraus and escaped.

This put the generals in the awkward position of having to admit that stealing away a suitable boy to serve as playmate and/or future groom for his beloved ward was not not something Lord Saturnus would do. However, they hastened to point out, Lady Teodora would never allow such a thing, and Saturnus was in no condition to be able to plot and execute such a plan without her noticing.

The next day, another, equally urgent communication was sent by the captain of the Mechanicsburg Security Division accusing Sturmhalten of attempting to kidnap a Mechanicsburg citizen – a young girl who had been in the process of running away from home – by using the Geisterdamen to prevent them from leaving Sturmhalten Castle. The note said nothing of Master Tarvek.

Klaus had not been able to give any justification for this scenario, other than Sturmvoraus would never do something so stupid . Unfortunately, Klaus did not accept such reasoning from his subordinates, let alone himself.

So he sent a questor to investigate.

Shortly after the questor left, another message was sent from Mechanicsburg, saying that the purportedly kidnapped Tarvek Sturmvoraus had arrived of his own free will to inform them that his purportedly outraged father was heading to Mechanicsburg, but with the intent of capturing and possibly killing Agatha Sannikova. 

And he was doing it at the head of an army.

Messages requesting further clarification as to what the hell was going on received no response from Sturmhalten, Mechanicsburg, or indeed any communication center within twenty kilometers of the Valley of the Heterodynes.

That was when the generals informed Klaus that he would be sending the Jägers – all the Jägers – ahead of Castle Wulfenbach on his fastest airship, to ensure the Baron’s forces would be present to discourage any military escalation before his arrival.

Though there was no universe in which anyone would believe that the presence of Jägers near an army intent on attacking Mechanicsburg could result in less violence, Klaus had recognized the message. He could either play along, or watch the Jägers commandeer a ship and leave anyway.

Those onboard Castle Wulfenbach who saw the Jägers depart had been unnerved by the silence and grim solemnity with which they did so. There were no jovial cries of ve hunt, no playful jostling and roughhousing, no laughter, no flirtations with the female officers – not even with the ones who usually flirted back.

Not even with Von Pinn.

Mechanicsburg, for the first time since their creation, was under threat with no Jägers to protect her.

Zog had insisted on landing before getting within visual range of Mechanicsburg, and continuing their approach on foot. Khrizhan and Goomblast didn’t like it any better than the rest of the pack did, since it would delay them even further, but this was Zog’s area of expertise.

It had been worth it when the Jägers emerged from the landscape in a silent rush, nothing more than the rustle of grass to give them away before they smashed into the back of the Sturmhalten army.

Though they had been focused and serious – some would say unnaturally so – on the journey there, the moment the fight began, the Jägers began to regain their usual bonhomie. This, Khrizhan suspected, was only partly the release of tension and the gnawing feeling of helplessness.

It had been a long time since the Jägers had been greeted by the sound of cheering. A long time since they were this close to home.

Khrizhan nodded in approval as a group of Jägers swarmed up a large cannon tower and began to swing themselves in tandem, rocking it back and forth until it was teetering wildly, the occupants clinging to the cannon and screaming in terror. He and the other generals had not yet joined the fight, but watched from a copse of trees on a nearby hill, which gave them a decent view of the battlefield while keeping them out of sight.

“Dot iz Master Saturnus up on de vall, Hy tink,” Goomblast said.

“Hy heard dot he vuz doing better,” Khrizhan said. “Din’t realize it vuz dot much better.”

Zog glanced at the runner on his right, who was practically vibrating with the effort of not taking off down the hill to join in. He’d managed to hold out for nearly ten minutes, and although they did not say so, the generals were impressed. If he made it to twenty minutes, they’d consider him officer material.

“Jurgen, go down until tell Master Saturnus to meet me at de Monster Gate. Hy vish to discuss de situation vit him.”

The Jäger saluted Khrizhan. 

“Yessir.”

“Und ven hyu is done,” Zog said, not taking his eyes off the battlefield, “go help hyu brodders.”

“Yessir!” But Jurgen hesitated. “If Master Saturnus iz back,” he said, cautiously, “doz dot mean…?”

Khrizhan winced internally. Jurgen would not be the only Jäger to think it, once word got around. But even if Saturnus had recovered his full strength and reclaimed his title as Heterodyne, there was still no heir. It would buy them a decade, maybe two, before they’d be right back where they started.

Khrizhan settled for honesty.

“Hy dun know.”

The Jäger didn’t argue or look disappointed, merely nodded and ran off. The generals put another point in his favor.

“Maybe if he is vell enough to fix der kestle,” Goomblast said, in a carefully conversational tone of voice. “Vitout killing himself, dis time.”

“Sure,” Zog said bitterly. “Den ve get to choose betveen neffer being able to go home, or neffer being able to go more den two leagues from de gates.”

“Zumting brought dem here,” Goomblast said, nodding to the army. “Zumting so important dey risk bringing de Baron down on deir heads.”

“If dere vuz a new Heterodyne in Mechanicsburg, Gkika vould haff told us,” Khrizhan said.

“Unless Gkika did not know,” Goomblast pointed out.

“Der Baron can sqveeze der vy’s und verefor’s out of der prince’s brain ven ve is done,” Zog snapped. “Right now, ve defend de town. Tell Saturnus Hy vant vord from Gkika, und runners from de town.”

Khrizhan slipped away through the trees, moving with remarkable stealth for a large creature in a bright red uniform. The Refuge of Storms had managed to stretch its army around the south side of the town, but they had not had a chance to dig in deep, and the Jägers had easily and eagerly chased them right back out again. There was no one to stop Khrizhan from approaching the Monster Gate.

“Khrizhan!” The voice came from above. Khrizhan looked up and saw Saturnus peering over the edge at him.

“Iz dot really hyu up dere?” Khrizhan asked, only half joking. “Hy heard hyu vere dead.”

“If the devil wants me back, he can come and get me himself! Where the hell have you been?” 

“Ve vuz being sneaky!” Khrizhan said.

“There’s a first,” Saturnus said, and disappeared.

Khrizhan tucked himself into the shadow of the gate’s opening and waited. Normally the negotiating doors were used to speak with outsiders frantically pleading surrender, without having to let anyone inside or lower any defences. 

Khrizhan had never been on this side of it before.  

There came the distinct sound of steel bars being drawn back, and the small door within the great gate swung inwards, although the portcullis remained down. Instead of Saturnus, there was a frazzled looking young man that Khrizhan did not recognize. 

“Hello, general,” he said, hurriedly. “Lord Saturnus is in the middle of an important conversation, but he’ll be right with you.” 

The young man did not quite shut the door all the way as he hurried off. Khrizhan hesitated, then reached through the gaps in the portcullis bars and pushed the door open a little further. 

He could see down a road he knew by heart, every brick and paving stone. Some of the shops had changed, but the buildings were as they had been for hundreds of years, and over them was a skyline he had known all his life. 

But he was looking at it on the wrong side of the door, through iron bars. It felt…metaphorical. 

He was dragged from his thoughts by the sound of an approaching argument. Even before he could make out the words, he recognized – from many encounters with it – Saturnus’ I know you’re right and I’m annoyed about it so I’m being difficult on purpose voice. It had not changed since the old man was a little boy. 

Abruptly, the door was jerked open all the way, revealing Saturnus Heterodyne, once-Lord and master of Mechanicsburg. 

The last time Khrizhan had seen Saturnus, it had been after the heart attack, but before the two strokes that had nearly finished the job, and Khrizhan could see the damage they had done. Always a big man in every sense of the word, Saturnus now seemed small in a way that had nothing to do with being seated. The flowing mane of beard and hair were gone, the latter cut short and the former shorn entirely. He was far from skeletal, but his body bore the scars of having been so, in bony hands and a face sharp in ways it had never been before. 

He also had company. 

“—going to kill yourself—!” Dr Sun was in the middle of protesting. 

“Dr Sun, you grow increasingly repetitive. Understand that I do hear you, I do comprehend the risk, and am choosing to ignore you. Now, do you mind? I have a conversation to have here,” Saturnus said. Sun threw his hands up.

“Fine! I give up.” He tossed a vial into Saturnus’ lap. “There. If your heart starts to go into arrhythmia again, use that and maybe you won’t die.”

He swept away.

“Damn good timing,” Saturnus said to Khrizhan conversationally, tucking the vial into a shirt pocket. “Even if it was cutting it a little close.”

“Hyu dun look as bad as Hy heard.”

“You should have seen me five years ago,” Saturnus said. “And I’ll be doing even better now I’ve got this.”

He patted the arm of the chair, and Khrizhan noticed for the first time that it was not at all a normal wheelchair.

“Isn’t that something?” Saturnus said, fairly bursting with pride. “Agatha – you’ve heard of her, haven’t you? My girl – well, Teodora’s ward if you want to get technical about it – she designed it. Does all the work itself so I don’t need some minder wheeling me around.” 

Khrizhan dismissed his initial evaluation of Saturnus. Yes, the man had lost size and strength, but the old fire burned in his eyes. He was a far cry from the sullen, ashen-faced man who had not even been able to look at them as they explained their deal with Klaus. 

“Now,” Saturnus said, “not that I don’t think you boys can handle the situation yourselves…”

“Der Baron is on his vay,” Khrizhan confirmed. “Ve took scouting ships ahead – ve lost some time on foot, but ve did not vant Sturmvoraus to shoot us down.”

“We’ll be able to hold our own now, at least, with you. We just lost a good third of our remaining defensive and offensive capabilities.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “Agatha killed the castle.”

“Killed der—?”

“She got this damn fool idea in her head that if she turned off and on again, she could…” He glanced at Khrizhan and waved a hand. “That it would fix the consciousness, even if we couldn’t fix the structure. And whatever she did killed it. Once this is over, I’ll have to go in and see if I can bring it back, but…”

“How could she kill der kestle? She is a young girl! Und Hy heard she—”

“I know what you heard!” Saturnus snarled. He visibly forced himself to calm down. “Never mind the castle. You focus on the army. There are still a few Geisterdamen inside the town. We’ll do our best to drive them out, you make sure if they set foot outside the wall, they die.”

“Dey vuz trying to take a child vit dem. Vuz dot hyu Mizz Agatha?”

“No, it wasn’t. Agatha’s probably still inside the castle. I think the Geisterdamen don’t know what she actually looks like – probably just saw blonde hair and thought better safe than spare parts.” 

“Vy duz de prince of Sturmhalten vant dis girl so badly he vill come to Mechanicsburg to get her?”

To Khrizhan’s surprise, Saturnus answered – but it wasn’t any of the answers Khrizhan expected.

“He thinks she’s Lucrezia’s daughter.” He raised a finger. “Not that she’s Bill’s. That she’s Lucrezia’s daughter.”

Which was not the same as saying she wasn’t the child of Master Bill. While Khrizhan could admit it was not out of the realm of possibility for Lucrezia to have used the attack as cover to run off and find herself a new man, it was also not impossible for her to have run off while already pregnant.  

Khrizhan did not ask. If Saturnus had wanted him to know, he would have said it. Logically, he knew if this Agatha was the Heterodyne, it was the right thing for Saturnus to do. Keeping a Heterodyne secret in Mechanicsburg would be a monstrous feat, and every person that knew was another risk.

But some small and petty part of him wondered if it wasn’t a punishment. How could I ask you to protect her? You weren’t even here. You had a new master to attend to.  

Saturnus told him the story – the relevant parts, at least – including the part where Vole went off to rescue the girl.

Twice.

Vole was the last man Khrizhan would ever choose to send on a rescue mission even before he was banished. That Vole had not killed her, despite how easy it would have been to pin it on bandits or the prince – or even to simply hide the body and said he could not find her – was strong evidence against the girl being a Heterodyne. 

But perhaps he would obey an order not to kill a Heterodyne, if it came from Saturnus.

And there was another thing he had not been expecting. 

"Three Jägers, they were…" Saturnus' brow furrowed in concentration. "Ognian, Dimo, and…" He snapped his fingers a few times. "Ah! Maxim."

"No," Khrizhan said. "Ve haff not seen dem." 

Saturnus frowned. 

"Well, I hope they get here sooner rather than later. We'll need that evidence she sent them after, when this is over." 

"Dey followed her order?" 

"She asked them for a favor," Saturnus corrected. "Believe me, when she turns the big pleading eyes on you, ha, the devil himself couldn't say no." 

No, you can't, can you? Khrizhan thought. She's got you wrapped around her little finger worse than Teodora ever did. 

Something on the battlefield exploded, and there was a cheer from the crowd on the walls.

“It vill be dark soon,” Khrizhan said. “Dey vill retreat for de night, if dey iz smart, und Zog vill let dem. Ve vill set up camp nearby, und ve vill keep an eye on dem. Ven dey attack again, ve vill be ready.”

“If any of the boys are wounded, send them Gkika’s way.”

“Ve need runners from der town. De Jägerkin must fight. Zog vants a report from Gkika, who she has und who can fight.”

“I’ll send word.” A sly glint appeared in his eye, and he added, innocently, “And do you want anything from the general?”

“Not at dis time,” Khrizhan said, voice and face as neutral as possible.

“I’ll just tell her you said hello,” Saturnus said, with a wickedly helpful smile.

Chapter Text

Gil managed to get Tarvek pinned to the ground and shout, “I knew you were—!” before Agatha got him in a headlock and hauled him off-balance.

“Stop that!” she shouted as Tarvek scrambled away.

“Hy forgot about him,” Vole muttered. Higgs murmured a slightly sheepish agreement.

“What are you doing here?” Tarvek demanded. “How did you even–? Do you have any idea how dangerous this place is?”

Gil broke free of Agatha’s grip and shoved her away, barely looking at her.

“I heard what you did! Trying to kidnap someone and then lying about it, and who even knows what else! I knew I had to stop you, because they’d never see you coming, you lying, traitorous, weas—! ”

This time, it was Tarvek who tackled Gil. He had significantly less success pinning Gil down, but held his own as Gil struggled to break free, or at least get enough space to draw back a fist. 

“I never did anything to you!” Tarvek screamed. “All I wanted to do was help— ” 

Gil tried to cover Tarvek’s mouth with his hand. “Shut up! Shut up, you liar! The Baron told me exactly what you are!”

Tarvek let out a sound somewhere between a howl and wail and bit down on Gil’s hand.

A cascade of water hit them, leaving both boys coughing and sputtering. A shadow fell over them, and they looked up to see Agatha with her fists on her hips, glaring down at them.

“Thank you, Mr. Higgs,” she said, not looking around. 

“Ma’am,” Higgs said, setting the now empty bucket down. 

“I do not have time for this,” Agatha said to them, sternly. She pointed at Gil. “You. Get off of him.”

Slowly, sullenly, Gil obeyed, and he and Tarvek got to their feet. While Tarvek was Agatha’s height, Gil had a few inches on her, and several pounds of muscle on them both. The way Agatha was glaring, she somehow managed to loom over him all the same.

“Who are you and what are you doing in my castle?”

“I’m Gilgamesh Holzfäller. I came here to stop Tarvek from—”

“I wasn’t going to—!”

“Ah-ah!” Agatha interrupted, holding up a hand. She shut her eyes and inhaled deeply. When she opened them, she had…changed. Neither Tarvek nor Gil recognized it, but the castle did. Higgs did. Even Vole did.

Whatever their feelings about the girl, all three felt nothing but honored to bear witness as – after years of having roots trimmed and new growth cut away – a Heterodyne began to bloom. 

“My town is under attack. I need to fix the castle. Tarvek has been helping me, and I need his help, so whatever you think he did, too bad.”

“But you have to—!”

“Have to?” Agatha repeated. Her eyes blazed and her jaw clenched. She knew how to respond to that one. Lord Satur— Her grandfather had said it often enough, and right now Agatha felt it in every bone in her body. She bit the most important words back.  “Have to? I am the ward of Master Saturnus Heterodyne and Lady Teodora Vodenicharove! You are an intruder in my town, in my home! I can do whatever I want, and I do not have to do anything!”

“Bu—” Gil began. 

She pointed imperiously at both of them.

“Whatever your problem is, you both put a sock in it until all of this is over, because I don’t have time for it. If you can’t do that, get out, or wait here until I do have time to get someone to escort you to safety. If you are going to help, you have to be gracious.”

“Gr/gracious?” the clank repeated, baffled.

“Dot vill be de Lady Teodora talkink,” Vole said from the corner of his mouth.

“You already know I’m here to help you,” Tarvek said. He shot a nasty glare at Gil, who shot one right back.

“Well, I know he’s up to something, and I’m not letting him out of my sight until he does it."

“Do it in a polite and respectful manner!” Agatha ordered. “As long as you’re in my castle, you will behave like civilized gentlemen. Understand?”

They both nodded, still shooting each other vicious glares.

She swiveled on her heel to face the others.

“Now what?” 

“N/Now we go to th/the li/library. Foll/follow me.”

“Just admit we’re lost,” Higgs said.

“We are no/not lost!” the castle snapped. “I cannot get lost withi/in my own wa/wa/lls! The rooms have/ave simply been mov/mov/rearranged in my ab/absence!” 

Agatha felt that must be the case. No matter how uncharitable one might want to be, there was no denying that 'all these hallways look the same' was not a viable complaint for anyone. Each Heterodyne had left their mark, whether in design or decoration. One hallway had snakes - carved into the crown molding, twining around light fixtures, taxidermied into poses alternately intimidating and unsettling. Another had been built perfectly symmetrical, and had managed to remain so even in the destruction. Mirrors had cracked in the exact same pattern, statues were missing the same pieces, and rugs unravelled so tidily it was hard to believe it was not intentional.  

They had settled, mostly unconsciously, into a formation: Higgs and the Castle/Muse hybrid in the front, Vole bringing up the rear, the Heterodyne and her associates in the protected middle. Gil and Tarvek had been very consciously ordered to walk on either side of Agatha after the second slapfight had broken out.

“I’m pretty sure I saw that pillar before.”

“Do you/you want to le/lead?”

“Little bit.”

“Wait,” Tarvek said suddenly, bringing them to a halt. He cocked his head to one side. “Shh. Listen.”

“I don’t hear anything,” Gil said irritably. Tarvek was listening too hard to be snippy back. 

“Me either. I think the fighting’s stopped.”

“What?” Agatha said. “You can’t tell me your father just gave up! ”

Vole fished out a pocket watch and glanced at it. “No, dey is probably just stopping for de night.”

“You can’t call time out in the middle of a war! ” Agatha exclaimed.

“Sure hyu can, especially if hyu can’t see in de dark. Efferybody splits up und goes to sleep und den dey is rested for fighting in de morning.”

Agatha looked at Higgs, who nodded.

“That’s crazy!” Agatha sputtered. “That’s—! You—! What!”

“You have to sleep if you want to keep your strength up. And speakin’ of, maybe you three should put your heads down for a bit.”

“We can’t go to sleep!” Agatha protested. “I have to fix the castle!”

“They can/cannot stop now. I must/must be repaired.”

“They’ll be a lot less likely to bolt you in upside down if they have a nap first,” Higgs pointed out.

The clank hesitated, the tips of its wings flicking uncertainly.

“Well,” it said grudgingly. “When you put it/it that w/way.”

Vole made a face. “Lord Heterodyne is not gon be happy about dis.”

“He’s going to be a lot less happy if he doesn’t get his castle back,” Agatha said, and rubbed at her face. With her momentum lost, her shoulders sagged. “’M hungry,” she mumbled.

“C’mon,” Higgs said, and changed directions. Down another hallways, and then he ducked into a room and waved for them to follow. 

It was a bedroom, dominated by a four-poster bed. Agatha guessed that it might have been some kind of guest bedroom, as the furniture selection had the slightly disjointed feeling of being things you didn't want to get rid of, but didn't like enough to use every day. The bedposts, for example, were carved to look like they had simple vines twining around them. Beautiful, but not particularly exciting - the flowers depicted weren't even the poisonous kind. The sturdy wardrobe in the corner couldn't walk on its carved wooden feet, and the rug was, under the dust, attractive colors in a pretty pattern that did not make you feel like your eyeballs were being dragged from your skull.   

Like everything else, it had seen better days – the bed curtains and blankets were moth-eaten, and one of the posts had snapped, leaving everything hanging at a wild angle. Agatha recoiled as Higgs approached it.

“What if it has rats in it?” she whined. Gil and Tarvek nodded vigorously, noticed they had agreed on something, and glared at each other.

“Hyu should be so lucky,” Vole said dryly.

“I’ll make something up,” Higgs said. He looked to Vole. “Think you can find a kitchen from here? Good. You go get them something to eat, I’ll take care of this."

“And wh/what am I/I suppo/osed to do?” the castle demanded.

“You stand guard outside the door and try not to be annoying, if you think you can do that without blowing a circuit.”

“You/you are ver/ver/much ruder than I rem/member.”

“It’s been a rough day for everyone,” Higgs said flatly.

Both Vole and the clank turned to leave; the castle flicked its wings out enough to block Vole from passing it, but couldn’t fold them back up properly and had to shuffle out the door sideways while Vole snickered.

The teenagers huddled up against the wall, Agatha once again the bulwark between the two boys, and watched Higgs as he began to strip the bed. He was examining each piece of the bedclothes very carefully, looking for something – they did not know what, and he did not volunteer the information. Anything that passed the test was tossed into a pile in the middle of the floor; the rest went back onto the bed. When all the blankets and sheets had been sorted, Higgs went to the wardrobe and repeated the process.

“The castle knows him?” Tarvek whispered.

“He said he was from Mechanicsburg,” Gil murmured.

“But the way he talks to it is weird. And he just walked right in here without any trouble. Vole’s a Jäger—”

“Jäger-shaped ,” Agatha corrected.

“Fine, Jäger-shaped . But he’s just...he looks like just a human.”

Higgs began to construct makeshift bedrolls out of the blankets that had matched his mysterious standards. As he did so, he glanced up and, seemingly without meaning to, met Tarvek’s eyes. Tarvek felt his stomach go tight. The look in those eyes was not threatening or dangerous, but told Tarvek that while he was not quite in over his head, he was sinking rapidly and should perhaps abandon ship and strike out for shore.

Tarvek looked away.

“I guess it doesn’t matter,” he muttered. He wondered if Higgs realized how much of a mistake that had been. Perhaps he had weighed the dangers of warning Tarvek off against Tarvek saying something he shouldn’t; perhaps he simply hadn’t realized Tarvek was very, very good at this.

Because Higgs might as well have told Tarvek to his face that he was right, there was something strange about him, and it was a secret, and the secret was big enough that he would be willing to hurt or even kill Tarvek to keep it that way.

“What do you mean, Vole’s Jӓger-shaped?” Gil demanded. “You’re either a Jäger or you aren’t.”

“He used to be. The generals threw him out because he tried to kill the Heterodyne Boys.”

A pause.

“What?”

Agatha shushed them both, irritably.

“Keep your voices down! The castle doesn’t know – and you two are not going to tell it. I need all the help I can get in here, and the castle will absolutely crush him if it finds out. The Heterodyne Boys forgive him for it, even though he swore to get his revenge and...” Agatha waved a hand in an “and so on” gesture.

“Then why is he helping you?” Gil demanded.

“He’s not helping me. He’s helping my— He's helping Master Saturnus.” She paused, and glared at Gil. “And you don’t tell anyone that. Especially not the Baron.”

“Then he is still a Jäger!”

“No, he isn’t,” Agatha said, in the tones of a Mechanicsburger explaining something that was perfectly sensible and blatantly obvious – to them. “Jägers swear the Jägertroth and serve the Heterodyne family. Vole broke the troth, but he helps Master Saturnus, specifically." She frowned. “Although Master Saturnus was surprised. He thought Vole hated him, too...Mr. Higgs?”

Higgs looked up.

“Do you know what happened with Vole? Why Master Saturnus thinks it’s his fault?”

“What makes you think I know?”

“You’re old enough to have been around when it happened. Aren’t you?”

“I am that,” the airman said, mysteriously amused. “What did he tell you?”

“I asked once, but he didn’t want to talk about it, just that it was his fault. Vole wouldn’t say anything except that it wasn’t his fault – but I think Master Saturnus must have done something bad, because he never thinks anything is his fault.” 

“Is that all Vole said?”

“He said it was very personal.”

“Huh,” Higgs said, genuinely surprised. After a moment, he went back to arranging the blankets. “S’pose it is.”

“You’re not going to tell me either, are you?” Agatha complained.

Higgs was quiet for a moment. He finished arranging the blankets and rose, moving to sit down on the bed. He took out his pipe, but did not light it.

“There was a…misunderstanding between Vole and Master Saturnus. Saturnus felt that should be taken into consideration. The generals…didn’t.”

There was a long silence.

Tarvek was thinking that once again, Higgs had said more than he likely intended to say. For one, Higgs had the apparent age of someone who would have been young when the Heterodyne Boys came to power – perhaps not a child, but certainly not a full adult. Certainly not old enough to hold any kind of position that would let him be privy to the Jägers’ secrets.

Agatha was thinking something very different.

“Did Master Saturnus ask him to kill his sons?”

“No,” Higgs said, immediately.

He din’ need to ask. Hy alvays know. Dot’s vy Hy iz…

“But Vole thought he did,” Agatha said.  

“Yes,” Higgs said. “Vole wanted him to ask him; I think he would’ve tried it eventually, on his own. The generals thought so, too, so they threw him out. Saturnus couldn’t stop them – wasn’t his call to make.”  

“How do you think someone is asking you to commit murder?” Gil demanded. Tarvek raised an eyebrow.

“Extremely easily,” he said. “Especially if both parties are familiar with each other.”

“And you’d know all about that,” Gil sneered.

“And he and Vole were very familiar with each other,” Agatha said to Higgs.

“No offence meant, but I’d say ‘bout the closest things to friends your average old school Heterodyne could have.”

“I believe it,” Agatha said dryly. “Honestly, I’m surprised they were close enough that Vole even thought he could guess what Master Saturnus was thinking.”

“That’s the thing,” Higgs said. “Vole didn’t think he could guess. He could. I’d never known him to be wrong, til that night.” He glanced at Gil and Tarvek, then away. “This ain’t my story to tell. And it ain’t somethin’ you need to worry about. ‘S not somethin’ you can fix, not the way you’re thinkin’.”

“I guess you’re right,” Agatha said with a sigh. “It’s none of my business.”

It made sense that she would care about her grandfather’s guilt, but she cared about Vole’s side of things, too. She wasn’t sure why. Perhaps because she and Vole both cared about Saturnus, in their own different ways. Perhaps it felt unfair to punish him for something he might have done, even if the might was a probably.

“Besides,” Tarvek said, “he’s not a Jäger anymore. That means he’s not your responsibility.”

Agatha said nothing to that. No, he wasn’t a Jäger. He wasn’t really a citizen of Mechanicsburg, either. He’d shown nothing to her but indifference, and she couldn’t say she particularly liked him as a person, so it wasn’t as if they were friends. And yet…

She did not notice Higgs noticing that she did not say she agreed.

Chapter Text

Agatha woke up when her arm went numb, the tingling in her fingers dragging her out of uneasy sleep and into the musty darkness of Castle Heterodyne. The room was lit with a mixture of weak moonlight and what glow the red emergency lights could slip through the crack under the door. It mixed together into unpleasant shadows that made Agatha unwilling to shut her eyes again. 

Agatha looked around. Vole and the castle/clank were gone, but she thought they were probably standing guard outside. Higgs was tucked into a corner out of sight of the door with his cap pulled down over his eyes. Tarvek was still fast asleep, but Gil’s pile of blankets was empty. A door that Agatha had assumed was a closet was partly open, revealing a slice of room. 

Agatha got to her feet as quietly as she could and padded across the room. Sucking in her stomach, she managed to squeeze past the door without pushing it open. 

On the other side she found a small study. There were bookshelves on the far wall, a dust-covered desk that showed few signs of use, and Gil, curled up on a window seat. He had one leg drawn up to his chest and the other stretched out before him; with his chin on his hand, he was gazing out the window at the city below. 

Although the similarity began and ended at ‘sitting in the window’, the sight reminded her of when she’d met Tarvek, which made her realize she’d never actually met Gil. 

Though she hadn’t spoken, Gil glanced up when she entered, and drew his other leg up. She took this as an invitation to join him, and did. 

“You couldn’t sleep either?” she asked quietly. Gil shook his head. 

“No, just done sleeping. I only need about five hours. Look,” he said, nodding out the window. “You can see the Refuge of Storms army from here.”

The clanks and cannons stood in uniform rows, merely waiting for the order to attack, but the humans had put up tents and set up lanterns. Banners flapped in the breeze. Agatha felt a growl building in her chest. The insult of it all. 

“I’ve heard of you,” Gil said, distracting her. “Agatha Sannikova. They say you brought Saturnus Heterodyne back from the dead.” 

“He wasn’t dead,” Agatha said. “Just very sick. But yes. I spent time with him, and it made him feel better.” Her mouth twisted wryly. “And now you’re going to say they also say I’m an idiot.” 

She was pretty sure Gil blushed. 

“Well. They do,” he said, somewhat defensively. “But I was also going to say that you don’t seem like an idiot to me.” 

“I’m not,” Agatha said. “I never was. My uncle made a locket that…it would give me headaches whenever I got too excited or angry or thought too hard. It kept me from breaking through. But it made it so hard to think.” 

“Why?” Gil asked, horrified. 

“Because I’m fifteen years old, and I live with the Lord and Lady of Mechanicsburg, and I don’t not look like Lucrezia Mongfish. Because the Geisterdamen have been kidnapping every female Spark of my generation they could find. Because a Heterodyne would never have to study for weeks to get a barely passing grade in chemistry class.” 

She dug her nails into the palms of her hands. 

“That’s the worst part. It was so awful and it made me so miserable and it hurt, but it did keep me safe. If I’d been wearing my locket in Sturmhalten, none of this would be happening right now. Lady Teodora said I have every right to be angry, and I am. But it’s hard, when I know that it would have been worse, otherwise.” 

“I know,” Gil said, with a fervency that startled her, “exactly how you feel.” He actually grabbed her wrist.  “And you, you understand how I feel!” 

She shushed him and he winced. 

“Sorry. I just…no one else would…” He let go of her wrist and sighed. “You know Castle Wulfenbach has the hostages, right?” 

Agatha nodded. Lord Saturnus had been very impressed when he’d heard about that. He’d said he was glad Klaus had 'outgrown his heroics', although apparently he wasn’t executing enough people. 

She did not say this to Gil, who continued. 

“Well, I’m one of them, and up there, status is everything. Who your family is, how strong a Spark you are. But I didn’t have a family or the spark. Bottom of the heap? Try below the heap.”

“I can’t even reach the lowest rung on the social ladder,” Agatha said, and Gil gave her a sideways grin. 

“Exactly. But it turns out—” 

His eyes flicked to the door, and his expression hardened. 

“You can’t tell him this,” Gil said, lowering his voice even further. Agatha frowned, knowing he meant Tarvek. “It doesn’t have anything to do with what’s going on here. Besides, he thinks he knows already.” 

Curiosity shoved morality bodily out the window, and Agatha said she promised. 

“I found out who my father really is, and…let's just say, if anyone else found out, a lot of people would want me dead. I can’t even be the mysterious foundling prince – I had to be such a nobody, no one would even look at me. When I broke through, the Baron taught me how to hide my spark, because—” 

“People would get suspicious.” 

Gil nodded. 

“If the others knew, nobody would ever dare make fun of me again, but I can’t tell them, because then I’d be dead. I’m too strong now for people to push me around, but…” 

“The loneliness is the worst part,” Agatha said. “And you can’t make people let you in.” 

Gil’s smile was strangely energetic. 

“See?” he said, only just remembering to keep quiet. “You get it!” 

“And so do you,” she said, smiling. “So where does Tarvek fit in, in all this? You said Tarvek thinks he knows, and down in the Great Movement Chamber he said he was trying to help.” 

Gil scowled, mood darkening instantly. 

“It’s nothing.” 

“If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to,” Agatha said, “but that was very extremely not nothing.” 

Gil let out a soft, humorless ha, and leaned back against the wall. 

“Yeah,” he said. “It wasn’t nothing. Tarvek was— I thought he was my friend. It was barely two years, but it felt… He was the only one on the castle who never made fun of me. Ever. Even my other friends tease me sometimes, even if they don't really mean it. Then one day I…I found out about the records room. It’s a top-secret vault where the Baron keeps information on all the families of the hostages.” 

“And Tarvek offered to help.” 

“Well…no, I asked him to. Because I still trusted him, back then. He helped me break in, and sure enough, we found my records—” He looked embarrassed and waved a hand. “Details don’t really matter, but basically the records said I was the son of an extremely minor Spark who got his entire family killed.” 

“Oh, Gil…” 

“I did want to be important so the other kids wouldn’t make fun of me,” he admitted, “but what I really wanted was to matter to someone. Y’know? If I was a Martian prince, it meant there were people out there who wanted me to come back some day.” 

Agatha didn’t know. For all her struggles, at the end of the day she had Teodora and Saturnus to come home to. That was why Uncle Barry had brought her here, she realized. He had known he was going to ruin her life with the locket, but he made sure that at least she would never have to face it alone.  

Agatha had always had arms to hold her when she cried. 

“But instead, the only people who would have cared about me were my immediate family, and they were dead,” Gil was saying. “I really was all alone. I was always going to be alone. So I ran. I left Tarvek behind in the records room, which was probably exactly what he wanted anyway. But I was stupid, and I wasn’t paying attention, and ran right into the guards. 

“They dragged me off to the Baron and he told me…well. Like I said. It turns out I am important. But he also told me what Tarvek was really like. How much a threat he was. He was just using me to get to the records room. He didn’t want a friend, just a, a tool he could use.” 

A light went on in Agatha’s brain. 

“Oh,” she said. “You’re the friend Anevka was talking about.” 

Gil gave her a strange look. 

“When I first got to Sturmhalten, I met Tarvek’s sister. She said it was Tarvek’s fault he got kicked off of Castle Wulfenbach, because he made a friend instead of a pawn he could manipulate.” 

“That’s— What?” 

Agatha shushed him, absentmindedly, running through memories of previous interactions with this extra context. She listened to Gil with half an ear. 

“Listen, Tarvek did not think of me as a friend. Okay? And Tarvek didn’t get himself thrown off Castle Wulfenbach, I made sure it happened. Tarvek had been sending confidential information back to his family, and I told the Baron where to find the evidence. He was sent home the next day.” 

Gil looked proud, but it felt…forced. He wanted to be proud of it. He was making himself be proud of it. 

“Ohh,” Agatha said. "That’s why he gets so upset every time someone says I shouldn’t trust him because he’s a Sturmvoraus. And why it matters so much that I keep saying I trust him anyway.” 

“Yeah,” Gil snorted, rolling his eyes. “Because he’s being called out and pulling one over on y—ow!” he hissed, when Agatha kicked him. 

“Did it occur to you that maybe the Baron was wrong and overreacted?” 

“He didn’t. Because when the guards found him in the records room and they brought him in, you know the first thing he said to me?” Gil leaned in, and with the air of an executioner dealing the final blow, said, “That he was sure there was more to me, and he wasn’t going to stop looking until he proved it.” 

He raised his eyebrows, triumphantly, and waited for her to react. 

Agatha stared at him. 

Gil seemed like the stubborn sort, but Agatha was used to arguing with stubborn people. Part of it was knowing when to try and arrange the facts to fit into a pre-existing worldview and knowing when to hit said worldview with a hammer.    

“Your friend saw you were upset that you weren’t important and you think he was out to use you because he said he was going to keep searching in the hopes of finding a better answer for you?” 

“Exactl— Wait, what? No!” 

“If he was just using you to get to the records room, then he already got what he wanted. If he somehow knew you were important but just needed evidence, why tell you he was going to keep looking?"

“That—! I—!” 

She could see the mental battle taking place within. First, the attempt to find a hole in her logic. The realization that there wasn’t one. The brain scrambling as the foundation began to crumble, desperately trying to shore it up with something that wasn’t it is because I say it is. 

It would be a tough thing to confront, Agatha thought. Who would want to find out they had not discovered an enemy, but turned on a friend? The revelation that something so treasured and important had not been rotten at all, that the pain hadn’t had to happen, that you had lashed out in fear and anger and struck something that was as true as you had wanted it to be. 

That Tarvek had been innocent and Gil had, with no evidence and solely on the word of a man already inclined to be suspicious, taken his best friend away from himself. 

“You’re wrong,” Gil inisted, slumping moodily in his seat and wrapping his arms around himself. “I know Tarvek better than you do.” 

“And the Baron knew him better than you did?” 

"He wouldn't lie to me." 

“Maybe he was just wrong.” 

“The Baron is never wrong. Ever. About anything.” 

“Everybody’s wrong sometimes,” Agatha said, mildly. 

Gil’s jaw went tight.

“You’re wrong,” he said, shortly. “You can’t trust Tarvek.” 

“You can’t trust Tarvek,” Agatha said. “I can trust whoever I like. And so far, you haven’t done anything to prove yourself particularly trustworthy to me. Why should I not trust Tarvek?” 

“Because I’m right,” Gil said. It was Agatha’s turn to snort and roll her eyes. 

“You sound like Lord Saturnus. ‘Of course I'm allowed to do whatever I want to people! I’m the Heterodyne’,” she said, imitating his gruff voice. 

Gil scowled and glared out the window. When it became clear that there would be no further rebuttal, Agatha put her chin on her hand and joined Gil in gazing moodily out of the town. Her eyes fixed on the Refuge of Storms camp. She closed one eye and lifted a hand, pretending to crush the distant figures between her fingers. 

"The worst part is, I know what kind of weapons my ancestors built, stuff that didn't need to be connected to the castle to work – and the Heterodyne Boys locked it all up in the old dungeons where I can't get at them." 

“You’d have better luck building a new one,” Gil said. She could tell he was still grumpy, but that was to be expected. It wasn't a pleasant experience, having one's worldview challenged.  

"Probably," she sighed, dropping her hand. 

"I'm surprised they didn't kick the monsters out when they locked up the war machines." 

"They were going to," Agatha said. She was going to say more, but suddenly she was furious. Her blood was boiling in her veins, she was practically trembling with the effort of fighting down the urge to start screaming.  

Dr Hembelbrogg had tried very hard to talk around it when he gave her the tour of the guildhall, but Agatha had been able to see the shape of the empty space his words were forming around. She had been able to hazard enough of a guess that she knew to go to Teodora, not Saturnus, to ask. 

It had been the first time in their lives that Saturnus and Teodora had ever even slightly agreed on something. 

They are your people, Saturnus had said. You're supposed to protect them, that is our job, do your duty, William Heterodyne. 

 And then, when they dismissed this simply because it came from the man who stood for the old Heterodynes and all they had done, Teodora had stepped in.  

What of the monsters who are innocent? What of the humans who aren't? Where will you draw the line?

So Bill and Barry had burned the Flesh Yards to the ground, but left the residential areas untouched, and built the Hospital District around them. Nobody knew what the original plan had been, what the masters had almost done, but the monsters were pretty damn sure they could guess.

At the time, Agatha had been…disappointed. Until then, all the things Saturnus complained about the Heterodyne Boys doing were things Agatha thought quite objectively the morally right thing to do. Banning torture, not raiding with the Jägers, not demanding tribute from nearby countries… 

Tossing out all the monsters, just for being monsters? That was outsider behavior. How could anyone think that was Good? How could they not see it was so small-minded and prejudiced and heartless?

But now…no, now disappointment was outrage. Agatha knew that that was her father – and those monsters were her people. Her father had planned to drive her people out of their homes, send her people into the cold to fend for themselves. Did not care if her people starved or were killed or found another safe place to go. 

Her people. 

How dare he? 

"All the monsters?" Gil asked, suitably horrified. 

"All of them," Agatha agreed grimly. At the time, it hadn't occurred to her to ask Teodora if the Boys had been ashamed of themselves. Now she hoped they were. And if they weren't, well, she might just make them. 

Agatha made herself take a deep breath, clenched her fists tightly, and relaxed them when she exhaled. 

"Lady Teodora managed to get them to see they were wrong," she said, "so it doesn't matter." 

It did, but now wasn't the time for it to matter. 

"It would have been such a waste," Gil said. "They didn't utilize the Jägers, either, not even during the Other War. The Baron always looks for useful instead of good or bad." 

"It also would have been a horrific abuse of power and a failure of the Heterodynes' responsibilities as rulers," Agatha pointed out with a disapproving look. 

"Oh. Well. Yeah. That too." 

She gave him a smile and nudged him with her foot. "Keep it in mind," she said, "just in case you do turn out to be a Martian prince." 

He chuckled. "You should go back to sleep," he said, teasingly. "You'll need your strength to build all those death rays you're going to need." 

"How many death rays do you think I need?" she asked. 

"You've got armies on opposite sides of town, so I suggest at least two." 

"Or," Agatha posited, "one death ray on a swivel, high up enough that I can see both targets." 

"A little too visible, I think. Plus, you'd need to be able to shoot it farther, and that requires a higher power draw." 

"Mm, and I'd be starting from scratch – we'd never be able to haul the existing weaponry through the castle, even with Higgs and Vole to help."  

"Sleipneir says death rays are like shoes: a girl needs one for every occasion." 

"Maybe something mobile," Agatha suggested, her mind beginning to turn. "Something handheld, but powerful enough to—" The word turned into a yawn and both she and Gil stifled laughs. "Tomorrow," she said. "Death rays tomorrow." 

Waving lazily at Gil, she left. As she passed through the door, though, she paused and glanced back. He'd hunched up further and wrapped his arms around himself, his expression deeply troubled. Agatha wanted to say something reassuring – maybe point out that if Tarvek didn't care about their broken friendship, he wouldn't be so upset. But being upset didn't mean Tarvek was ready to forgive or be friends again. 

Some things broke too much to fix. She didn't know if this was one of them. 

Agatha left him to brood. Crawling back into her makeshift bedroll, she stifled another yawn and pulled the blanket up over herself. It wasn't her job to sort out people's interpersonal lives. It was her job to keep them safe. 

And she was going to be good at her job.

Chapter Text

Agatha was standing in a seemingly endless field of dry, dead grasses, dotted with piles of yet-unmelted snow. Little white rabbits scurried to and fro, digging through the crackling brown stalks and occasionally bumping into each other.

“…vant to try und get it avay from her, hyu is velcome to try, but I am stayink right. Here.”

How silly, Agatha thought. The little rabbits were talking. Arguing, actually. She supposed that made sense – in her experience, if someone could talk, they could argue. And would. 

“Perhap/haps a stick?” 

“Dere iz no stick long enough in de vorld.”

These must be construct rabbits. Maybe they’d let her get close enough to see how they worked. 

“We can’t wait around here forever! The fighting’s been going on for nearly an hour!”

That hit Agatha’s brain like a bucket of cold water. She jerked upright with a gasp, her cheek detaching with an unpleasant sticky feeling from the table it had been resting on. Vole, Higgs, Tarvek, Gil, and the clank that held the last of Castle Heterodyne were huddled at the far end of the room, staring at her.

There was a gun in her hand.

It had once been a standard ball and powder pistol – or at least, Agatha was relatively sure it had been. Brass tubes now wrapped around every inch of the gun’s barrel like a parasitic vine, blue glass orbs the size of small marbles held fast within their grasp. 

“What is this?”

“You built it,” Tarvek said.

“In your sleep,” Gil added.

“You went sleepwalking,” Higgs said, “and somehow managed to find one of the old labs, despite being in an unfamiliar death-trap filled castle.”

“Yes,” the castle said, its face a picture of innocence. “It is quite remarkable.”

“I didn’t...shoot anyone, did I?”

“No, but you pointed it straight at Vole’s head when he tried to wake you up,” Higgs said, with the tiniest of smiles. Vole glared at him.

“Hyu only tink it’s fonny because it vusn’t hyu lookink down de barrel of a madgirl gun.”

“I’m sorry,” Agatha said sheepishly. She held the gun flat in the palm of her hands, examining it carefully. Would it have even worked? Most things she built exploded or just failed, but things Agatha built worked now. There was every change it would have set off a shot powerful enough to vaporize Vole, the wall behind Vole, and possibly several walls behind that.

Agatha carefully tucked the gun into her belt, making sure it was secure. She knew she shouldn’t try and use it without having a more experienced engineer look it over first, but she was also sure it wasn’t the kind of thing to leave lying around where anyone could pick it up. 

“Let’s go,” she said, straightening her shoulders.

“I will lead the way,” the castle said officiously, not exactly shoving Higgs, but not pushing past very gently, either.

“Do you have a better idea of where we are now?” Higgs asked innocently, and a sword whistled out of the darkness, slicing the clank’s head neatly off its metal shoulders.

Higgs lurched forward to catch it, but the sword swung back again. He managed to move fast enough that it didn’t take his head off, but slashed a deep cut across the arm he threw up to defend himself, and he stumbled back. The castle’s head went bouncing off into the hallway and out of sight.

“Plostok vedik!”

The Geisterdame came flying through the door feet first, smashing into Higgs’ chest and sending him sprawling backwards. Before he had time to recover, she had rolled away and charged for Agatha. Tarvek ran to intercept. Gil grabbed a chunk of rock from where part of the wall had collapsed and hurled it. The Geisterdame knocked it away with her sword without even looking, sending it smacking into Tarvek’s face, opening a thin line of blood on his cheek. He went down.

Agatha was frozen in place, her hand on the gun she had made, unwilling to use it – but her mind had fixed on it and wasn’t giving her any other options and the Geisterdame reached out for her—

And let out a squawk of surprise as the headless body of Otilia hit her like a flail. Dazed as he was, Tarvek still let out a cry of distress as Higgs emotionlessly swung the body up over his head and brought it crashing down on the Geisterdame again.

She did not get up.

The second Geisterdame dropped from above, her crescent-bladed spear slicing through the empty air that had once contained Axel Higgs. She looked around, startled, in time for Higgs’ fist to connect with her jaw. She flew through the air as if dragged by an invisible rope, and smashed into a display of ancient and unspeakable devices. She hit one dead on.

There was a snapping sound – muffled but sharp and somehow wet – and when the Geisterdame hit the ground, her neck was at a strange angle, and she did not get up again. 

Slowly, the machine – covered in buttons labeled with various organs and one large knife switch labeled ‘in’ and ‘out’ – began to tip backwards. It hit the machine behind it with a dull thud. That machine, pushed by the weight of the first, began to tip sideways.

As is the way of things, the machines fell in a neat line, each one larger than the last, each one hitting the next faster and harder as momentum built up until the very last, a massive construction covered in scalpels like porcupine spines, began to tip – right over where Tarvek was still woozily getting to his feet.

“Tarvek!” Agatha screamed.

Tarvek looked up, eyes wide, and threw up his arms, uselessly – and was not reduced to a bloody smear. Being a young man with impeccable survival instincts, Tarvek did not waste time slowly opening his eyes to realize he was alright, or even look around in confusion to see why he wasn’t dead. He just rolled out from under the machine, scrambled to his feet and took off running until he was halfway across the room. Only then did he look back, just in time to see Airman Higgs step back and let go. The machine hit the floor so hard, several floor tiles shattered.

They waited, listening hard.

“Right,” Higgs said, “I think that’s all of them.”

“Not qvite,” Vole said. He scooped up the discarded spear and lifted the battered clank body off of the first Geisterdame, tossing it aside like so much garbage. Immediately, the Geisterdame twisted in place, pulling off a liquid, lightning-fast move that would have brought her to her feet if the spear hadn’t met her halfway. Vole drove it straight through her chest and out the other side in a spray of off-color blood.

Vole released the spear and dusted his hands off.

“Now dot is all of dem,” he said smugly.

“Then if you would not mi/mind,” the castle’s voice said from down the hall. Tarvek carefully looked out and, when nothing grabbed him, scurried down the hall and scooped up the clank’s head.

“I can’t believe she beheaded a Muse,” Tarvek moaned as he returned, staring down at the clank’s head with as much grief as if it had been a relative. “A Van Rijn original!”

Gil rolled his eyes.

“You and your stupid Muses. They’re just clanks.”

“They,” Tarvek snarled, “are the greatest clanks ever created. Built for the Storm King himself—”

“Built for the Storm King himself,” Gil echoed in a mocking, high-pitched voice.

“You are so immature —”

“Well, at least I’m not a—”

“ Don’t,” Agatha said, sharply. She was trembling slightly, and shut her eyes when the Geisterdame on the floor breathed her last in a gurgling choke. When Agatha opened them again, it was on Higgs that she fixed her gaze. His eyes went wide and his expression turned strange, almost hunted. 

“What are you?”

“Airman Axel Higgs, miss, I told—”

“What. Not who. What. Are. You.”

“You can’t tell?” Gil asked, surprised. “He’s a Jäger, obviously.”

Both Vole and Higgs went rigid.

“He’s just new,” Gil went on. “They don’t look like that right away,” he said, pointing at Vole. “It all grows in over time. And he’s using it so he can get into Mechanicsburg—” Here Gil’s voice took on a note of chiding disapprobation that visibly took Tarvek very much by surprise, “—even though that’s against the agreement.”  

“Desperate times,” Higgs said, face going blank. “Soon as she’s safe, I’ll be right back out again.”

But Agatha knew that the pointed teeth were the first to come in; knew that to still look entirely human, Higgs could have been a Jäger no longer than 5 years; knew that the last Jägers ever made were before her father took over. 

“I am very tired of people lying to me,” she said, sharply. “And I am very tired of secrets.”

“I would have told you sooner,” Higgs said, “but I was hopin’ not to give myself away in front of these two. Like he said, I’m not supposed to be in here. And...no disrespect, miss, but you ain't the Heterodyne.”

The yet hovered over them both. Agatha nodded shortly.

“When we have time, I’d like to get to know you better,” she said, trying to sound more cheerful. “Master Saturnus told me a lot about the Jägers." 

Higgs understood her meaning, and touched the brim of his hat.

“If we are qui/quite finished,” the castle said patiently. “I did not enjoy be/being ambulatory, but I am en/joying this state even le/less.”

Chapter Text

“It’s amazing,” Agatha breathed. The sunlight that managed to fight its way through the grime of the glass ceiling overhead was left grey and feeble, but still managed to catch the motes of dust that danced in the air and make the gilding on the book bindings glow. There were no walls, only bookshelves packed tight with tomes large and small. Glass cases displayed yet more trophies of Heterodynes past, mostly weaponry taken from the mangled, flattened, and/or smoking remains of fallen foes.

She ran her thumb through the dust on the spines of the nearest books, uncovering the titles: 1001 Uses for Spare Nervous Systems, Fun with Femurs, My First Autopsy, How to Replace Organs with Mechanical Replicas in Ten Easy Steps .

“Oooh,” she said, eyes lighting up, but just as she reached for it, a voice touched her ears.

The library was quiet in the way all libraries are, sound muffled by the sheer weight of knowledge, so even though the voice was little more than a whisper, it was clear as day, and Agatha recognized it instantly.

“Damage sustained.”

Agatha looked to the clank head in Tarvek’s hand.

“Is that you?”

Van Rijn had given the Muses faces made of some sort of malleable metal, which moved and stretched as skin would, thus allowing them to emote like humans. They even, Agatha had read, moved their mouths when they talked, even though their words were produced mechanically, not by shaping exhalations.

The castle used this feature...poorly. It rarely opened its mouth when it spoke, and when it did make expressions, they came and went as if it was putting on a mask. There was no slow shift of features; eyebrows and lips and cheeks snapped from one position to the next. Agatha suspected that, as the castle was not used to having a face to show emotions with, the movement was involuntary, which suggested astonishing things about the clank’s construction. 

On a human, the emotions would have shifted too quickly for Agatha to register, but with it flipping from one to the next, she could see the alarm and fear before it settled on indifference.

“I have many backup systems,” it said. “This is likely a minor one. Once I am in control it will no longer be a concern.”

“Where is it coming from?” Tarvek asked.

“It does not matter,” the castle said quickly.

“When you say it like that,” Gil said, eyes narrowing, “it makes me think it matters a lot.”

The castle could not stop the nervousness from bleeding into its voice.

“No,” it said, “it does not. Time is of the essence. You must reconnect me now.”

But Gil was moving deeper into the library, listening.

“Is this another Heterodynes-only thing?” Agatha asked.

“Yes!” the castle said, quickly. “Yes, exactly. I would not wish to be forced to crush your minions to preserve the family secrecy.”

Agatha cocked her head to one side.

“I don’t think I believe you,” she said. 

“Over here,” Gil called. He was kneeling on the floor beside a rug that was likely brightly colored under the decade and a half of dust. Grabbing it by the corner, he pulled hard, dragging the rug aside.

“No!”

Light flickered and shimmered, and an image of Castle Heterodyne appeared. Beneath it was a pane of thick glass above several orbs covered in small lights in yellow, blue, and red. These shone brightly together to form the image hovering in the air. The Sparks in the room went oooooh! and hurried to cluster around it.

“It’s a map of the castle!” Agatha exclaimed, eagerly.

“It shows all the damage points, look,” Tarvek said, pointing. “Here, and here—”

His finger passed through the image and it flickered and changed, suddenly showing Castle Heterodyne as it once had been, whole and undamaged, in all its great and terrible glory. A date and time stamp appeared, instantly recognizable to all – the day that had brought Mechanicsburg to its knees. 

The first explosion was low in the castle’s foundation, setting off a chain reaction that echoed up through the structure. At four-times speed they watched walls dissolve, floors tear themselves apart, towers crumble. Higgs looked away when the ceiling in the front hall collapsed, staring at the far wall with eyes too empty of emotion.

The whole thing had only taken ten minutes.

“Fascinating,” Tarvek breathed, as the image flickered and began to replay. “A real-time map of the castle – this must be incredibly useful when Mechanicsburg is under siege.”

“What’s amazing is that it can still show all the damage even with the power turned off, and being disconnected from the rest of the pieces,” Gil said. 

“Maybe it just records what the damage was right before it lost contact with those areas?” Tarvek suggested.

“Hmm. That would mean we don't know what the prisoners have fixed since then,” Gil said. He looked to the clank head still in Tarvek’s hands. “Which is it?”

But the castle did not respond. Its attention was fixed on Agatha. She had gone deathly pale, save for two bright red spots on her cheeks. Her eyes were fever-bright. She was breathing very slowly and deliberately. 

“You were under the Great Movement Chamber,” she said, slowly. Her voice was hollow and far away. “In this clank. You didn’t want to be in the clank.”

“The La/Lady Lucrezia had an interest in mov/oving consciousness from one form/form to another, especially/ly between organic and mechanic,” it said, slowly. “Otilia/a currently resides in a form of fle/esh and bone. I know/ow not what became of her, in the en/d.”

Agatha did not move. Gil and Tarvek saw Vole and Higgs were leaning away from her slightly, eyes fixed on her as if waiting for her to explode. They'd known more Heterodynes than the boys had. Maybe she was. 

“It wasn’t overwork that gave him a heart attack, was it?” she asked, in that same hollow voice. “That was what you meant about not meaning to do it. You showed this to Grandfather, and he realized what it meant.”

“What does it mean?” Gil asked, and immediately regretted it when Agatha’s gaze met his. Her eyes were wild with a helpless rage that frightened him for reasons he couldn’t explain.

“It means it wasn’t the Other who attacked the town. She did it. William Heterodyne married Lucrezia, and he brought her into this town, and he let her do whatever she wanted, and she hurt the castle and she hurt the town and she killed my brother.”  

Saturnus had been overworking himself, but it was this that had pushed him over the edge. No one had liked Lucrezia except Bill and Barry, and only Bill actually trusted Lucrezia, but none of them had seen this coming. Bill had brought the viper into the nest and set it free – and what was worse, hadn’t even realized when it finally bit him. Mechanicsburg had lost its Heterodyne in his hunt to bring down the very person he sought to save.

“Fuck!” she screamed. She doubled over and buried both hands in her hair, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she struggled not to cry. Gil grabbed the head out of Tarvek’s hands and held it up to meet his eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” he demanded.

“He or/ordered me not to!”

“Why?”

“I don’t know/know!”   

Gil turned a furious look at Tarvek, who had a hand hovering over Agatha’s back as he tried to decide if his touch would make it better or worse.

“Did you know?”

“No! She told the Knights of Jove it was one of the Fifty Families! She...she…” 

“I don’t have time for this!” Agatha sobbed. “I can’t have a breakdown over horrifying revelations about my mother, I have too much to do!”

“Agatha...if it helps...I don’t think it was on purpose.”

Slowly, Agatha raised her head to look at Tarvek. 

“Everything I’ve heard about her, she was arrogant. She couldn’t resist telling people when she’d pulled off a plan successfully. This attack took Mechanicsburg completely out of commission in every possible way; if you wanted to break a population, this is how you’d do it. She’d never be able to let someone else take credit for a plan like that. But she would absolutely let someone else take the fall for it. Or fake a kidnapping to avoid taking responsibility.” 

“How is that supposed to help?” Gil demanded. Tarvek bristled.

“I was thinking maybe incompetence would be less painful than deliberate infanticide.”

Agatha swiped at her eyes and took several deep breaths that did not seem to help much.

“I’m fine,” she lied. “I’m not fine, but I need to be fine, I need to…” She started, her hand flying to her mouth and her eyes flicking to Gil. He gave her a reassuring half-smile. 

"I didn't guess," he said. "You're really good at hiding it. But the way you talk about the town, it's not exactly a surprise ." 

"You can't tell anyone," she whispered. 

"Of course not. You can trust me." 

"Can we?" Tarvek asked sharply. "I happen to know, personally, that you'll cough up secrets to the Baron if you think it's the right thing to do." He said the words so venomously, it was almost surprising they didn't actually poison Gil. 

And Gil…looked away. 

"Who she is doesn't have anything to do with me or the Empire. It's not my business and it's not my place." He managed to look at Agatha, but not Tarvek. "You can trust me," he said again. 

“Maybe we should take a break,” Higgs said.

“No!” Agatha snatched the head from Tarvek’s hands and stood. Tears still trickled down her cheeks, but she ignored them. “She’s either a monster or a coward or both, but either way she does not get to be more important than this. What’s done is done, and I’m going to fix it, and if I ever find her, I will deal with her, but until then, she is irrelevant.”

“Do you want to try declaring something dramatic like ‘and now we shall fix the sins of our fathers’?” Tarvek asked meekly. Agatha blinked at him, and finally chuckled, albeit wetly. She sniffed and wiped at her eyes.

“I think ‘let’s get a move on before the town gets flattened’ is good enough.”

“Well, if you want to be practical about it,” he scoffed.

“Oh, come on, Tarvek,” Gil chided, playing along  for Agatha’s sake. “You can’t expect a Heterodyne to go ranting and raving without a proper audience!”

Tarvek struck himself dramatically on the forehead.

“Of course! How could I be so foolish.”

“Alright, alright,” Agatha said, managing a smile. “I’ll just laugh maniacally when we switch the power back on.” She held up the castle’s head. “I need access to a major circuit.”

“The large blue book on the third shelf opens a secret door.”

Gil obediently trotted over and tugged the book – then yelped and just barely managed to dodge the spikes that shot out of the shelf.

“Do mi/ind the security features.”

The bookshelf swung open, revealing a service hallway. Gil reached out hesitantly and waved his hand around in the opening. Nothing happened. Gil did not enter, but withdrew his hand. Two seconds later, a massive blade dropped down from the top of the doorway with a woosh.

“Ooh,” Agatha said, her eyes shining. “Because the first trap is instantaneous, they’ll assume a second one is, too. That’s so clever!”

“One does one/one’s best,” the castle said modestly.

Vole and Higgs, forgotten, watched the Sparks disappear inside.

“S’pose they’ll give us a shout if they need anything,” Higgs said. Vole sneered and rose to his feet.

“If hyu vant to go play fetch und carry, hyu go right ahead.” He crossed the room to one of the display cases and opened it up. He examined the pistols one at a time, but found none particularly pleasing. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Higgs was lounging casually in one of the sagging armchairs, lighting his pipe. For some reason, this was deeply irritating to Vole.

“So, vut iz hyu going to tell de odders? About her.”

“I don’t believe you need to concern yourself with that,” Higgs said casually.

“Hy suppose hyu could ask Lord Saturnus to order hyu not to tell de generals,” Vole said airily. “Vould make it not hyur fault hyu didn’t tell dem.” He chuckled nastily. “Hoo, ven de Jägers find out dot de master din’ trust dem vit de Heterodyne, dot’s gon be rough, hey?”

Higgs puffed on his pipe and said nothing...but he also wasn’t looking in Vole’s direction.

“Ve all knew dot de Boys din’ trust de Jägers, but Lord Saturnus not trusting de Jägers? Dot’s gotta sting.”

Higgs’ grip on the arm of the chair tightened ever so slightly.

“Und dis new vun, she dun really know der Jägers yet. She is all excited now, becawz of all der tings her grandpoppa told her, but shtories is not de same as de real ting. Maybe ven she meets dem in person, dey iz not what she expects.” He shook his head, sadly. “Vould be such a shame if after all dot, deir new Heterodyne found dem... disappointink.”

“Which one is it you’re goin’ for? Her gettin’ mad at me for startin' a fight when she needs us both in one piece to get through the castle, or him thinkin’ maybe he can’t trust me when I beat up his inside man?”

Vole sneered, which did not quite hide his embarrassment at being caught.

“Maybe I iz just enjoyink bad tings happenink to pipple I dun like. First hyu haff to leave hyu Heterodyne behind, den hyu haff to svear loyalty to somevun else—”

“We signed a contract,” Higgs said sharply. “That is not the same thing as swearing loyalty.”

“Iz dot vut Lord Heterodyne told hyu?”

Higgs was silent. His jaw had gone very tight.

“Und den, hey, hyu find out hyu gots a Heterodyne! Efferyboy iz so happy, dey all come back home, vut a surprise! Und den chust ven dey is ready to trow a big party, dey find out dot it iz a surprise becawz deir Heterodyne lost his faith in dem—”

The furious roar had Agatha back out in the library proper before the glass from the cabinet finished hitting the floor.

“What are you doing?” she shouted. Higgs froze, fist upraised. He’d only gotten one punch in, but it was his punch, and the blood stained Vole’s teeth red as he laughed. Agatha put her hands on her hips. Sheepishly, Higgs stood and backed away from Vole, who pushed himself up on his elbows. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand, looking viciously triumphant. 

“I get it,” she said, sharply. “You’re a Jäger, he’s an ex-Jäger, but you know what? The same rules for Tarvek and Gil apply to you two, as well. If you’re going to stick around here, you have to be polite and respectful to each other.”

“Yes’m,” Higgs said, tipping his hat, clearly embarrassed. Vole, grinning widely, held up his hands in mock surrender.

“Ya, ya, ve be best pals from now on, I promise.”

“Agatha!” Tarvek called. “We can’t do this without you! The castle keeps zapping me when I try to— Ow!”

“Know your pl/ace, minion! Those are not your secret/ets to learn!” 

Agatha sighed and threw her hands up.

“Could everyone please just cooperate for ten minutes together?” she shouted, and stomped back into the service corridor.

There was a quiet moment. Higgs, facing away from Vole, flexed his fingers and wiped the blood off on his shirt. Vole bent one leg and lazily draped an arm over his knee, still grinning.

“You pleased with yourself?” Higgs asked.

“Ho, hyu bet. I dun tink I effer saw hyu lose hyu temper before.”

“Strange days we live in,” Higgs muttered.

“Vell,” Vole said, standing and stretching. “If hyu didn’t vant such a sore spot about de Lord Heterodyne not trustink hyu, maybe hyu should haff stayed vere hyu belonged.”

Higgs started and turned, looking back at Vole with an expression of pure astonishment.

“Vut?” Vole demanded warily. 

“You’re mad we left. That’s what this is about, you’re mad at the Jägers for leavin’ the Heterodyne.” 

Vole’s lip curled and he snorted derisively.

“Ya, sure. Dot’s it. Hyu gots me all figured out.” He turned his back on Higgs and ascended the stairs to the second level. “Hy iz gon go find a gun vorth using.”

Suddenly there came the unmistakable chunk of a knife switch being thrown, a crackle of electricity, and three voices raised in maniacal laughter. The ground beneath their feet trembled. The walls around them seemed to contract, as if breathing in. 

And then sighed.

“Ahhhhhhh… home.”

Chapter Text

“Would you just go home already?” Saturnus snapped, fumbling with the ray gun on his lap. He couldn’t seem to get the lever to click into place properly, especially with Teodora hovering over him like that. “It isn’t safe out here for you.”

“As opposed to you, who are immune to bullets.”

“I’ve got a lot more experience dodging them than you do.”

“Dodging them using the body of a man in his prime, yes! Right now, you are still getting used to the controls on that chair. What am I supposed to tell Agatha if you get killed?”

“That I died defending Mechanicsburg like a proper Heterodyne!”

“Oh, don’t you dare give me that nonsense—”

A mechanical device, no more than a gun attached to a propeller, zipped over the wall and hummed down the street. Teodora wrenched the ray gun from Saturnus’ hands, twisted the handle, locked the firing mechanism into place, hefted it against her shoulder, aimed, and blasted the device into a shower of sad little springs and cogs. 

She lowered the ray gun and glared at Saturnus, who gazed up at her with starry eyes.

“Black fire, I love you.” 

“Inside.”

“I’m going, I’m going.” 

He had gone no more than half a meter when the ground underneath them…flexed. It was like a wave underground, a rolling of the earth that left changes in its wake. The stones on the street clattered as they shifted and resettled in a very slightly more organized pattern. The streetlights clicked on, brighter than they’d been in years. When the wave hit the walls of the town, they shuddered once, and then all was still. 

Ignoring Teodora’s protests, Saturnus hurried down the road until he could see the fountain in the square. He waited. And waited. No water poured forth. He looked up at the castle, as still and silent as it had been.

“What is it?” Teodora asked. “What’s happening?”

“I…don’t know,” he said. He shook his head and snapped his fingers at a young man passing by carrying a crate of ammunition like it was candy floss. “You. Get a couple of lads and go down to Mamma Gkika’s. Get the hammer and hike it up to the Doom Bell. Do not let her see you.”

“What if she does see me?” he asked, nervously.

“Tell her I told you to do it,” Saturnus said. “Then go and tell Carson to meet me in the crypt – and if you ask one more question, I will turn you inside out and use your bones to build a new hammer!”

The man was off like a shot.

“You’re going to the crypt?” Teodora asked, bewildered.

“There’s a conversation I need to have,” Saturnus said, mentally adding And let's hope he won't die before it's done. 

Saturnus had once asked his father why the Throne of Faustus was kept in the family crypt, and not somewhere more easily accessible, or at least warmer. He vaguely recalled the answer was some lecture about reminders of responsibility and the weight of the family name, which even at the time he’d thought was a load of hot air. His personal guess was that it was simply because Faustus Heterodyne was a dramatic son of a bitch. Normally, Saturnus appreciated the family flair for theatrics, but in this case, he would have preferred a little more practicality.

He’d never admit it out loud, but he hated the crypts. For a start, they creeped the hell out of him, which was downright embarrassing for a Heterodyne. They were cold and wet and the air was always heavy with the weight of centuries of death.

Mostly, though, it was because there were no good memories to be made in the crypts..

There were only two reasons to come down here. The first was to use the throne in order to run diagnostics on the castle without its interference, which meant something had gone very wrong. The castle got...embarrassed about damage to its mechanisms. It’d moan and fuss over every patch of flaking paint or cracked windowpane, but would actively hide a burst battery in the kitchen temperature regulators, even if it accidentally immolated a cook.

The other reason was to bury someone.

Saturnus had brought his father here, and his uncle. He had to bear the grim hope that someday he would get enough of his sons back to bring them down here, too. He’d brought…

Saturnus halted the chair before a headstone barely larger than the paving stones outside the cathedral.

Klaus Barry Heterodyne. Forever in our hearts.

Technically, he hadn’t buried his grandson. He’d attended the funeral, but hadn’t come down when they interred the body. Nobody had told him not to, just as no one had ever told him not to go near the baby, but they didn’t need to. He could see it in their eyes any time he so much as entered the room.

So while Teodora went with Bill and Barry and Doctor Yglyn to lay the boy to rest, Saturnus had begun work on the castle. He didn’t go after they were done, either. In fact, he had never come down here with the singular purpose of visiting his grandson. It had felt foolish to try and say goodbye to someone you’d never said hello to.

Staring down at the grave now, he felt a strange, new kind of feeling: regret. Was it possible Klaus Barry might have been like his sister, missing the drive for chaos and destruction, but with the passion and love for the town Bill and Barry had not had? Would Klaus Barry ever have stuck out that Vodenicharova chin and insist he had the right to choose who he spent his time with, even if that someone was evil incarnate? Would he have dared to enter the workshop of a distant and unwelcoming grandfather and strike up a conversation?

Would he have loved Saturnus? Could he have?

Footsteps approached and Carson called “My Lord?”

The seneschal of Mechanicsburg was still slightly pale and trying to look like he wasn’t leaning as hard on his daughter-in-law’s arm as he was. Arella was giving Saturnus a glare only a von Mekkhan was allowed to get away with.

“He needs to rest.”

“I’m fine,” Carson groused. “It was just the shock of it, that’s all. That damn castle. I felt it die! How far into my brain is that thing?” This was to Saturnus, who shrugged.

“Hell if—” He stopped short upon hearing himself, his voice so cracked and heavy he almost didn’t recognize it. He cleared his throat, and ignored the way the von Mekkhans’ eyes flicked to the grave at his feet and back again. “Hell if I know. Come on, we need this done quickly.”

Saturnus glanced again at Carson, and was shocked to realize he was feeling genuine concern for the effect this might have on the man’s health.

Damn that girl, he grumbled to himself. Agatha’s got to me. She’s insidious, that’s what she is.

“We’ll keep it as brief as possible,” he said, gruffly. “Don’t you raise your eyebrows at me like that, young lady. I have need of him yet. That son of yours isn’t nearly ready to take the role.”

The throne was in a state of disrepair, but not as much as Saturnus had feared.

“Sit down,” he told Carson. “And shut up and listen. You go,” he told Arella, whose eyes narrowed. 

“It’s alright, Arella,” Carson said as he carefully lowered himself onto a step. “We’re not in so deep that we’ll need protection from anything.”

“Then I’ll wait outside the door,” she said tartly, “so I can help him haul your lifeless corpse up the stairs when you’re done.”

The moment the door was closed, Carson opened his mouth.

“Agatha is Bill’s daughter,” Saturnus said.

Carson’s mouth stayed open, silently.

“You are now the fifth person in Europa who knows that fact. Possibly sixth, depending on where Barry is.”

Carson let out a sound that might have been the beginning of a word, but did not finish it. Saturnus turned away and began to put the mechanisms in order as he spoke.

“That locket of hers kept her mind in a trap so she couldn’t break through. She didn’t know any of this until the day before she ran away. She overheard Teodora calling her our granddaughter, but not about the locket. Felt like she’d fail the town if she became the Heterodyne, so she ran. Now she knows about everything, and she’s gone haring off into the castle to fix it, which it looks like she may actually manage to do.

“Vole figured out who she was on his own. He went after her in Sturmhalten because she’s my granddaughter, and that’s more important to him than her being Bill’s daughter. Him going into the castle to get the Sturmvoraus boy is an excuse so he could go in and get her out, for me, without revealing that he’s still…” His voice trailed off, and he forced himself to focus. “Still loyal to me.

“Once she knew what the locket did, Agatha refused to wear it. We were going to do our best to hide her Spark, continue to keep pretending she wasn’t a Heterodyne until I had fixed the castle enough, and she felt she was ready. I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep that up after this, or if she’s decided to announce herself now. Questions?”

“Yes.”

“Too bad. Get in.”

Carson slowly rose and crossed the room to stand beside the Throne of Faustus, but did not sit.

“I am still your seneschal,” he said, in a voice that had Saturnus fighting not to squirm. “It is my job to keep your secrets.”

“It wasn’t like we thought you’d tell someone!” Saturnus exclaimed. “We were afraid you wouldn’t need to! Klaus is much, much too good at what he does. If people started acting differently after a young girl the right age started living with Teodora, he might get curious. And even if we did throw him off the scent, the fact that he suspected even for a moment would get people’s attention!”

This mollified Carson somewhat, but he was still not ready to let it go.

“You realize what the Jägers are going to think about this,” he said.

“Yes,” Saturnus said tersely. “That it’s wonderful to have a Heterodyne again.”

“That you didn’t tell them because they work for Klaus.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Saturnus cried, outraged. “They know I didn’t think they’d tell Klaus any of the other secrets! Why the hell would they think that I’d think they’d tell him this one?”

“Not that,” Carson said. “And you know it. I know how you felt about Klaus taking them.”

“He didn’t take them! They went!” Saturnus snapped automatically. “He offered a deal and they chose to—”

He caught himself and closed his mouth, his lips pressing into a thin line.

“I don’t know what you said to them when they went into that house to talk to you,” Carson said mercilessly, “but we all saw the looks on their faces when they came back out.”

“I didn’t say anything to them,” Saturnus sullenly protested.

Unfortunately, this only made Carson nod, his expression that of a man who has just had a long-held mystery solved.

“Yes,” he mused. “That would do it.”

“Get in the damn chair,” Saturnus snapped. “We are not working with an abundance of time.”

“It’ll break their hearts.”

“Theirs or yours?” Saturnus snarled, and that, at least, wiped the pointed look off Carson’s face. “Don’t mess me around, Carson, I am not going to coddle your feelings. We did what we had to do, not what we wanted to do.”

“I believe you,” Carson said, finally seating himself. He took hold of the helmet with both hands. “I just hope they do, too.”

With that, he brought the helmet down sharply. 

Chapter Text

Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek were gripping each other’s arms and spinning in a circle. Gil and Tarvek didn’t even seem to notice they’d forgotten they hated each other. 

“We did it we did it we did it! It worked!” they chanted.

“And how do we feel?’ Higgs asked the ceiling. The castle sighed again, and again the walls flexed, like a great beast stretching its limbs.

“Wonderful. I am still in need of many repairs, and the dead zones remain out of reach, but all live areas are now under my control. I am…once again myself.”

“Then you can defend the town!” Agatha cried, throwing her arms up in exuberance.

“Not yet.”

Agatha froze.

“Not— Are you kidding? We are actively under attack!”

“A deal was made,” the castle said primly. “You must prove yours—”

“You have to do something! That was the whole point of bringing you back! If you can’t help my town, what good are you?”

Higgs and Vole glanced at each other, wide-eyed. A brief pause followed.

“The wall’s defensive capabilities were down temporarily. I shall restore them. And you shall be—” The castle cut off with a sound of surprise. “Oh my, how interesting! Someone is activating the Throne of Faustus!”

“The what? ” Tarvek asked. “Is that bad?”

“I shall go find out!” the castle said, cheerfully, and went silent.

“It ken’t be in both places at vunce,” Vole told Agatha, though she hadn’t asked. “It can talk to pipple in different rooms of itself, but it ken’t talk up here und down dere at de same time.”

“Why?” Gil asked in fascination. Vole looked annoyed.

“How der hell should I know?”

“It’s old Carson!” the castle cried with Carson’s throat, the lips stretching into a wide, manic grin. “And he said he’d never be back, how—!”

Saturnus could not see Carson’s eyes under the helmet, but he knew the castle saw him when the smile slowly drained away.

“Lord Saturnus,” it whispered.

“How do you feel?” he asked. “Did her plan work?”

“Yes,” it said, still in a numb whisper. “Yes, I feel. I am myself, I...The dead zones are still beyond my reach, but all functioning fragments are under my control.”

“Good.”

“I did not mean to,” it said in an even softer whisper. “I just wanted…I needed help.”

“That was not your fault,” Saturnus said gruffly.

“Many of my fragments thought I had killed you,” it said. “The greatest of me spoke with the Baron, who told me, but the rest knew only that something had happened to you within my walls. Knew that I had failed you, again , you and the young master—!”

“Shut up!” Saturnus ordered it, and the castle flinched. In a voice only slightly kinder, he said, “You couldn’t even see the place she blew up, let alone do anything about it. We do not have time to wallow in blame and self-pity; there is work to be done.”

“Yes, I am aware of the enemy at the gate,” the castle said, sounding much better. “I have reactivated the defences that went offline while I was...indisposed, but I cannot obey her further until she is proven.”

“Until—? You mean she still hasn’t? How the hell could she have reset you without getting into the Great Movement Chamber?” 

"We made an arrangement: I allowed her access to the chamber on the condition that she immediately afterwards go to the chapel to prove herself. If she is a Heterodyne, there has been no trespass.”

“And if she isn’t?” asked Saturnus, who had known the castle his entire life.

“I would...er...be allowed to crush her and her minion.”

Saturnus chuckled, to the obvious surprise of the castle.

“Oh, she is good,” he said proudly.

“You are not angry? I threaten the life of your ward!”

“Heh. It’d only be a threat if she wasn’t who she is.”

Carson’s body sat up straighter.

“You mean…?”

“Agatha is the child of William Heterodyne and the viper he married, and the rightful Lady of Mechanicsburg.”

The castle said nothing. Saturnus sat back in his chair.

“She’s not like me,” he said, “but she’s not like her father, either. She’s...somewhere in the middle. Loves this town, loves the people – humans and monsters. She’ll probably love you too.”

“I, er...have been a tad uncooperative , ” the castle said meekly.

“ No ,” Saturnus said, oozing sarcasm. “ You? Heaven forfend. She’ll love you anyway. Listen to me: I, Lord Saturnus Heterodyne, master of this town, recognize Agatha Sannikova as my heir, and order you to obey her as you would myself. Does that satisfy you, you big tin can?”

“Yes,” the castle said. “This will suffice.”

“Did she say if she plans to…after she proves...?”

“She has been most adamant that she will not be declaring herself at this time,” the castle said. Suddenly, it cackled. “Oh my, Carson is disappointed! And only moments after discovering her true nature, how amusing.”

“Alright, alright,” Saturnus said, waving a hand dismissively to hide...well, he wasn’t sure if it was relief or disappointment. Possibly it was both. “The second she’s upheld her end of the bargain, you get her and Sturmvoraus out here as quickly as possible.”  

“She has expressed interest in repairing me in full,” the castle said.

“Absolutely not! It’s too dangerous!”

“She is not entirely without protection. Vole is with her, as is Higgs.”

“ Higgs?”

“He flew the ship that brought the questor to Mechanicsburg.”

Saturnus slumped in his chair with a sigh of relief.

“Well, there’s some good news at last,” he said.

“She and her minions are well protected,” the castle said, a wheedling note in its voice. “Surely well enough to fix at least the areas with the most damage?”

“No. When all this is over I will go in and fix you.” He patted the chair. “This will let me do that.”

“And if she refuses?”

Saturnus scowled.

“You go up there and tell her she is not the Heterodyne yet, that I am her grandfather, and she is to get her butt out here and back home with speed. ”

“One moment, please,” the castle said smoothly.

“It’s the most logical course of action,” Gil said. “If the castle is stronger the more square footage it has—”

“The more connected it is, the more protecting it can do,” Tarvek agreed. “The whole point of this was to protect the town.”

“And between the three of us—” Agatha began.

“ATTENTION!” the castle boomed, making everyone jump. “Let it be known that Lord Saturnus, Master of Mechanicsburg, has recognized Agatha Sannikova as his heir!”

Tarvek tried to quietly get his heart beating again while Agatha frowned up at the ceiling.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Lord Saturnus is in the crypts below,” the castle said, at a normal volume. “He has ordered me to obey you. While I would still prefer to have you prove yourself as soon as possible, it is no longer so vital, and may be deferred to prioritize urgent repair.”

“You mean you can get started defending the town for real?”

“I am not particularly strong at the moment, but I am warming up all extra defensive measures at my disposal as we speak.”   

Agatha beamed.

“I also bear a message: Lord Saturnus requests that you prove yourself to me and leave immediately.”

“Tell him thank you for his help with you, and I appreciate his concern, but my plan is to stay here until I’ve fixed all the breaks. Once you’re a cohesive whole, I will leave.”

“Lord Saturnus seemed very adamant.”

“So am I.”

“He will order me to remove you from my premises by force if necessary,” the castle warned.

“Then I preemptively order you not to, and to accept no order to the contrary.”

The castle did not respond.

“He did say you have to follow my orders, right?”

There was another pause, and then the castle said, in a delighted voice,

“Oh, you are going to be very good at this.”

“She said what?”

“You did order me to follow her orders,” the castle said, in a meek voice Saturnus did not buy for a second.

“I am still her grandfather! Tell her if she doesn’t get down here now, she’s in more trouble than she’s been in in her life!”

“I’m fifteen years old, I’m not a child anymore! I’m perfectly capable of keeping myself safe. He can come up and get me if he wants me out so much.”

“I am more than willing to get her grandmother down here.”

Agatha paled slightly, but remained resolute.

“I will accept the consequences, after I leave – after I am done here. Besides, he’s the one who told me Heterodynes have a duty. Isn’t it my responsibility to repair you?”

“Oh that—! She—! You tell her—!”

“Forgive me, master, but this back and forth is taking a toll on Carson’s body.”

Saturnus looked more closely and saw the castle was having some trouble keeping Carson’s head upright. He growled in frustration; he didn’t have time for Carson to have a brain hemorrhage. The grandson had not yet finished growing, not to mention it took a minimum of two days after the sockets were implanted before they integrated fully.

“Fine!” he snapped, and then sighed. “Tell her not to overexert herself, and make sure she eats and sleeps enough. And if it takes her longer than two days, I’m sending people in after her. Wait! Tell her...tell her I’m proud of her.”

“Yes, master. And...welcome back.”

With that, the machine wound down. Carson reached up with shaky hands and jerked the helmet free. Normally, after connecting with the castle, Carson was energetic to the point of mania, but now his eyes were glazed and half-lidded, his expression slack.

“Alright, old man,” Saturnus said, “let’s get you patched up and back in bed.”

Teodora was waiting for them outside the entrance to the crypt, pacing back and forth between the entrance, her lips tight and her fingers plucking at loose threads in her sleeve cuffs. She jumped back when the door groaned open, then hurried to grab the edge and help Arella force open the great bronze slab.

“Is she alright?” she asked immediately. Then her eyes fixed on Carson. “Is he alright?”

“He’ll live,” Arella said icily. “Luckily.”

Saturnus ignored this.

“She’s fine,” Saturnus said, and Teodora let out a shaky sigh of relief.

“Thank God,” she breathed, closing her eyes briefly. “Which door is she leaving from?”

“Er… about that...”

Teodora’s eyes narrowed, and her voice grew sharp and dangerous.

“What about it?”

“She’s...not coming out just yet,” Saturnus muttered, shoulders hunched. 

“ What?”

Saturnus winced at the volume.

“Keep your voice down,” he hissed, waving his hands. “Do you want the whole town to know? She said she’s got to fix the largest breaks in the system, so the castle has enough processing power to defend the whole town.”

“Why didn’t you tell her to come back out?” Teodora demanded.

“I did! She won’t listen!”

“Well go back down there and make her listen!”

“I tried that already! I even threatened to get you down there!”

“You should have!”

“She said she didn’t care!

“So go in and get her!”

“I can’t!”

“For two days you’ve been saying you can go in now that you have the chair!” 

“I meant eventually! It’s not g ood enough yet! It needs at least two more iterations and a hell of a lot of stress testing before I’d be willing to walk into that death trap!”

“Then tell the castle to send her out!”

“I can't do that either!" 

“ Why not?”

“Because she—!” Saturnus cut himself off and slumped in his chair. “She beat me to it,” he muttered sulkily. 

“What?”

“I…I told it to listen to her like it would listen to me and she…” He slumped further. “She ordered it not to obey any orders from me about removing her. Preemptively.”

Teodora stared at him. Her mouth wobbled; she crossed her arms over her chest and pressed her fingers to her mouth.

“Are you… laughing at me?”

Teodora shook her head firmly, brow furrowing.

“You are!”

Teodora’s shoulders began to shake.

“I am doing my best here – this is serious!”

“I’m sorry,” she managed to croak out.

“It’s not funny!”

“Yes it is,” she said, and burst out laughing. “She got you!”

“Teodora, our ward is in that death trap with no way for us to get her out!”

“I’m s—” Teodora snorted, then took a deep breath to calm herself. “I’m sorry, yes, this is very serious.”

“I can’t even tell Vole to get her out, not when she’s got the castle to stop him from stopping her– Would you– !”

“I’m fine,” Teodora said, swallowing her laughter. “I’m fine, this is – this is very serious. Yes. So. You were outplayed by a fifteen-year-old.”

“I was not out— ” Saturnus glared at his wife. “Well, I was going to try and comfort you by saying she’s got Higgs with her. He doesn’t look like much but he’s one of the strongest and toughest soldiers I have. The castle even said she’s got minions—”

Saturnus cut himself off.

“What the hell did it mean, minions plural?”

Chapter Text

“Here, here, and here,” Agatha said, pointing to the largest dark spots in the castle. “That’s where we’ll focus our attention. There’s also the damage to the water wheel in the Great Movement Chamber, but I don’t know if we have the physical strength necessary to fix that.”

“I have some power stored in the salamanders. At minimal usage, it would last me another three years.”

“But we aren’t going to be using minimal power.”

“If I utilize all defensive and offensive functions at my disposal, I can maintain for another two days, perhaps two and a half, before the power depletion will be great enough that I will need action.”

Agatha frowned.

“Then we better hope we can finish this that quickly.”

Vole chuckled.

“Hyu haffen’t seen dis town in action,” he said as they made their way down the hall. “Ve iz holding two armies at bay vit both hands und vun leg tied behind our backs. At full power, Lord Heterodyne vill crush dem like ants.” 

“If he can stay focused that long,” Higgs said.

“I talked to him on der vall. He is mad, und not in der fun vay . Besides, dey din’ bring anyting interestink enough to distract him; is all de usual siege shtuff.”

Their first stop was the impluvium, a massive wall of fire that served as heater and boiler for the entire castle. The heat it gave off was so strong it was almost a physical force; it sucked the moisture from their skin and made it hard to breathe. It only took them two minutes to find the off switch, but that was long enough that its absence made them feel cold and clammy. It left them all grumpy and irritable, and they largely worked in silence.

Eventually, Gil and Tarvek found themselves working on parallel power cables. For several minutes, they ignored each other. Gil had managed to stop thinking about what Agatha had said to him the night before, but now it was gnawing at him again. He didn't know why – well, no, he did know why he couldn't dismiss her arguments the way he had Sleipnir and Theo's. She had treated the whole thing like he was challenging a scientific hypothesis. Everything was evidence, and she'd taken what he gave her and thought about it, considered his perspective, and determined that it was insufficient to counter her own evidence.  

Not I know he'd never do that , but he has never done that. 

Agatha had listened in a way Gil had never really experienced before. She had given him her complete and total attention, interested in nothing but what Gil had to say, as if what Gil had to say was the most important thing anyone had ever had to say. Like it mattered to her because it mattered to him. 

Like she really, really cared. 

And she hadn't said his evidence was wrong. She didn't say he'd let his emotions cloud the memory, or that he had misunderstood something. She had taken his argument, peeled away his conclusions, and looked at the facts. 

Made him look at the facts. 

And her evidence was pretty un damning, too.  

Tarvek shifted, catching Gil's attention.

“I found—” Tarvek started, and cut himself off. “Never mind.”

Obviously this was some kind of game. Tarvek wouldn't just come out and say something, he wanted to manipulate Gil so he'd ask, make Gil care about what he had to say. Well, Gil wasn't going to play along. Let Tarvek stew in it, waiting for Gil to play along. 

“Found what?” Gil asked. 

Damnit.

“What we found in the vault wasn’t true. About your family,” Tarvek muttered. 

Aha! He wanted to jump to his feet and point at Tarvek and yell see? See? at Agatha. He kept looking! He kept digging! He couldn't let it be! 

You think he was out to use you because he said he was going to keep searching in the hopes of finding a better answer for you?

When Gil said nothing, Tarvek kept going. 

“Did the Baron...tell you? That night? About who your family really is, I mean.”

“Like I’d tell you.”

Tarvek glared at him.

“I’m not asking what he told you. Just if he told you. Because I found out, and you deserve to know, even if you are being an ass about it. Your father was Petrus Teuful.”

Gil stared at him. This had to be some kind of trick. Did Tarvek think if he said something so blatantly incorrect, Gil would blurt out the truth just to get the satisfaction of correcting him?

“It makes sense why the Baron would keep it a secret,” Tarvek went on. He kept his gaze focused on the cabling before him. “I’d hoped I was wrong, but everything I found was airtight." He took a deep breath, sat back on his heels, and finally looked at Gil "I’m sorry.”

There was no sign of anything in his face but genuine regret, and it made anger blaze in Gil's stomach. How dare he be so good at faking kindness. GIl had forgotten how believable he could be. 

“Sorry for what?”

“All that work, and it was all for nothing. Worse than useless: telling people wouldn’t have given you any higher standing in the castle hierarchy, and people might try to actively kill you.”

Gil opened his mouth to ask if Tarvek really thought he could threaten Gil with revealing the ‘truth’, when he realized there wasn’t actually a threat in there anywhere.

“What do you mean, raise my standing?”

Now it was Tarvek’s turn to stare in confusion.

“What do you mean, what do I mean? That was the whole point: find out who you were, then I’d be able to figure out a way to access the information elsewhere so it wouldn’t raise suspicion, and then you’d have a name to defend yourself with.”

“The point was so I would know who I was and where I came from.”

The boys were giving each other matching looks of utter bewilderment as incompatible worldviews collided. 

“That’s ridiculous!" Tarvek said. "That’d be like having a suit of armor and not wearing it into battle. What’s the point in having information if you don’t use it?”

“What were you going to do with it?”

“Nothing! It wasn’t for me; it was your information.”

“No Sturmvoraus ever does anything if they aren’t getting something out of it,” Gil said, lip curling. “That’s what the Baron told me.”

Tarvek tensed and his face...his expression didn’t change, exactly, but around the edges – his lips, the corners of his eyes – twitched, like he was trying to keep them still.

“And we all know he’s never wrong,” he said in a very flat voice. He turned back to his work, shoulders hunched.

Gil waited. And waited. He knew Tarvek knew he was staring at him. Tarvek had always been good at knowing when he was being watched, or if there was someone else in the room, even if they were hidden. It was why no one ever wanted to play hide and seek with him.

Eventually, Gil lost his patience.

“ So?”

“So what?”

“What did you get out of it?”

“You’re not going to believe me, and I don’t feel like listening to you make fun of something…something personal.”

“So there was another reason.”

“Yes.”

“I knew it,” Gil said, telling himself the feeling in his stomach was satisfaction at being proven correct, finding out for sure that Tarvek was out for himself, was just pretending to help Gil for his own ends. “I knew he was right. I can’t believe I ever trusted you, you—”

“Fine!” Tarvek shouted. “You want to know? You really want to know so bad?” He shot to his feet. “What I ‘got out of it’ was helping my frie—”

The noise Tarvek made was a very soft, very short one, little more than an inhale of breath that ended abruptly, but it was a sound Gil knew he’d remember all his life. Tarvek stumbled back, hands flying to the dart protruding from just above his hip.

That was not where you intentionally shot someone, and Gil threw himself at Tarvek, dragging him to the ground, hearing the buzz of the next dart missing them by centimeters.

“Oh for goodness’ sake,” Agatha cried. She tossed aside the wire cutter she had been using and began to stomp towards them. “Could I please go ten minutes without somebody picking a fight?”

Gil, his arms still wrapped around Tarvek, rolled – and this time, Agatha saw the dart bounce off the stone floor.

“What—?”

Gil looked behind himself and spotted a flash of purple flicker deep in the shadows.

“Up there!”

“What’s going on?” the castle demanded, panicked. “I cannot see what’s happening!”

“Tarvek’s hit!”

“Oh, thank goodness, I was afraid it was something important—”

A figure landed with total silence and drew two wicked knives. Gil got a glimpse of a black stealth suit and a face hidden behind scarf and hood before the assassin was up in the air again, effortlessly flipping out of reach of the charging Higgs, whose hands closed on empty air.

“Smoke Knight,” Tarvek choked out. His face was pale, too pale for the tiny pinprick of blood left behind by the dart. “Pr-probably been in here since the c-castle went down.”

“Do something!” Agatha shouted.

“I can’t!” the castle cried, distressed. “I still have no control in this area!”

Agatha growled in frustration and dragged out the little pistol she had upgraded.

“Higgs! Move!”

Higgs didn’t even bother to look, he just threw himself clear. Unfortunately, so did the Smoke Knight, vaulting back up into the beams and disappearing into the shadows. Agatha lunged back to the power cable she had been repairing – a long, grey tube filled with needle-like inputs and outputs – and slammed it together, locking it in place. Instantly, the impluvium roared back to life, hotter than before.

“Aha!” the castle cried, victoriously. “There you are! And here am I!”  

“Alive!” Agatha shouted, drowned out by a loud crunch .

“...oh. Er...oops.”

“Okay,” Tarvek said, as conversationally as he could while hyperventilating. “That probably also crushed the antidote kit.”

“Sorry,” the castle said sheepishly.

“They went straight for you!” Gil said. “I thought they worked for your family!”

“They do,” Tarvek groaned.

“But why—”

“Because Tarvek’s the only one who can back up my story,” Agatha said. She dropped to her knees and cradled Tarvek’s head in her lap, almost as pale as he was. “He's the only one who knows anything who would be willing to talk to the Baron. There’s got to be something in the library on poisons,” she said, desperately.

“Oh my, yes!” the castle said.

“How about on antidotes?” Gil asked.

“Er…”

“Dere iz a medical lab nearby,” Vole said. “Dere vuz a machine in dere by Bacchus Heterodynes dot hyu grandpoppa fixed up vun summer. It von’t cure him, but it vill keep him alife, und dot vill buy hyu time. I iz pretty sure I remember how to vork it.”

“You were a lab assistant?” Gil asked, bewildered.

“Duz I look like a minion to hyu?” Vole demanded, indignant. “I vould hand him tools sometimes, ya, but I vuz dere to help vit de fun parts.”

“Like the Heterodyne equivalent of a fishing buddy,” Agatha said, sourly. Tarvek convulsed again, and sucked in a long, painful breath. Agatha flinched at the sound. “Vole, you and Gil take him and get him hooked up. Higgs and I will go to the library to find something on poisons.”

“Plant-based,” Tarvek choked.

“What?”

“Look for plant-based poisons,” Tarvek managed between gasps. “Something you could replicate here. They need the Baron. To think you killed me. That means they can’t use their. Their own. Private formulas.”

Agatha squeezed his hand tightly.

“I got you into this, and I’m going to get you back out of it. I promise.”

Chapter Text

One did not race through the halls of Castle Heterodyne, but Higgs and Agatha did walk very quickly. Agatha’s heart was banging in her chest, and she wondered if having a heart attack trying to fix the castle was going to become a new family tradition.

“He’ll make it,” Higgs said.

“You don’t know that,” she snapped. “And I don’t want to hear any platitudes about how he’s tougher than he looks . You can’t willpower your way out of organ failure.”

“No,” Higgs said, calmly. “He’ll make it because you want him to, and in my experience, when a Heterodyne decides someone isn’t going to die, they don’t.”

Agatha didn’t stop, but she did slow and look up at his face. His expression was always so calm, almost to the point of boredom, but he glanced at her very quickly from the corner of his eye.

“I notice we are now alone,” she said, and saw a tension...not release, but shift. He was relieved to be getting this over with, but was not going to enjoy the actual getting over process.

“We are,” he said, slowly. “Although I don’t know if this is the best time or place.”

“But it’s the time and place we have,” she said. “I’ve been hearing Grandfather talk about Jägers for years . I know how the process works, and I know how long it takes – if you were old enough to have experience with my ancestors, you’d look like a Jäger.”

Higgs winced. He looked away and rubbed his jaw.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “I should.”

“...not would,” Agatha said slowly. “Should.”

There was a clanking, juddering sound, and a suit of armor wandered around the corner ahead of them. It saw them, or sensed them, or whatever it did, and began to move towards them. Agatha wasn’t particularly afraid, as it didn’t seem quite able to raise its arms high enough to grab the handles of the two swords strapped to its back.  

Wordlessly, Higgs reached up, grabbed a brass rod that had once held a now long-rotted tapestry, and tore it out of the wall.

Actually, since the curtain rod was bolted very firmly in place, he tore out the chunks of granite around the fixtures.

“Hey!” the castle cried.

Higgs swung and caught the suit of armor on the side of the head, slamming it into the wall and crushing the helmet almost completely flat. The suit of armor collapsed, twitching. The impact also sent great cracks spiderwebbing along the wall. 

“Do you mind? ”

Higgs ignored the castle, and hefted the rod over his shoulder in the motion of a soldier shouldering his spear.

“Yeah,” he said to Agatha. “Should.”

Agatha, recognizing when she had stomped right on a sore point, said, “Sorry.”

Higgs shook his head.

“’salright. Helps me do my job.”

“Which is?”

“Dunno if I should tell you that, just yet.”

“My lady, Vole has told me to inform you that your inamorato-to-be has been stabilized, though he recommends you not dally.”

Agatha felt a wave of relief wash over her, so powerful it made her legs shake. She stumbled, and Higgs caught her arm, steadying her.

“I’m okay,” she said. Then she frowned. “...my what?” 

“We need to get you somethin’ to eat, after this,” Higgs said, quickly letting go of her arm. Agatha smiled, recognizing the tone of someone trying very hard to sound like they weren’t fussing. She’d been hearing it a lot in the last year or so, when Teodora argued with Saturnus. 

Higgs halted in front of a statue of a man and a snake trying to bite each other’s heads off. He reached out and pressed down on two of the scales on the snake’s back. There was a clunk and the statue, as well as the wall behind it, swung forward to reveal a wide, dark hallway with long thin horizontal lines carved into the walls. There was a lantern hanging on a hook just inside the door. Higgs lit it, then his pipe, then picked up the lantern and gestured for her to follow him.

Agatha forced herself not to look over her shoulder when she heard the doorway swing shut behind her, and hurried after Higgs. With the lantern lit, Agatha could see that the thin lines were actually letters. Someone had carved a message into the stone, but the words were too small and delicate to have been done with normal stoneworking tools. 

Not wanting to stop, Agatha could only get a few snatches of words. She couldn’t tell if it was a prayer, a curse, or a plea. With a shiver, she picked up the pace until she was next to Higgs. 

“I thought we were going to the library.”

“Shortcut,” Higgs said. “Sort of.”

“I’m kind of in a hurry here,” she said, trying to sound patient. 

“It’s farther to walk, but safer. Fewer traps, for a start.”

“You know a lot about the castle.”

“Been around it a long time.”

“How long?”

Higgs did not respond.

“Grandfather told me about the Great Movement Chamber,” she pointed out. “If I’m allowed to know that, I think I’m allowed to know about you.”

“That’s what I was thinkin’,” he said, “and I don’t have the ego to assume I’m a more important secret than that.” Here he gave her an almost apologetic look. “I was also thinkin’, ‘but he didn’t tell her about me’.”

“Maybe he didn’t tell me because it’s a lot harder to pass off ‘we’ve got a secret Jäger spy in the Empire forces’ as just telling me stor—” Except he had told her that, or something like it. But...no, no, that couldn’t possibly be...yes, Higgs had said he was old enough that he should look like a Jäger, but surely if he was that old, surely he’d at least have the teeth…

“There’s a seventh general,” she said. Higgs did not react. “Grandfather said he’s the spymaster. He stays hidden.”

Helps me do my job.

“He said he’s the oldest Jäger still alive. That he was one of the first.”

“That’s right.”

“ You’re one of the first.”

Higgs stopped so suddenly Agatha almost bumped into him. Slowly, Higgs turned, lifting the lantern a little higher, his eyes searching her face. Agatha thought maybe she could guess what he was looking for, and hoped he could see it there.

“Yes,” he said, “I am.”

Agatha was far too aware of how long this was taking, but she was also aware that this was important. He was the oldest Jäger alive, and she was the daughter of the first Heterodyne who hadn’t liked them.

“It’s very nice to meet you,” she said, “and I’m very glad you’re here.”

For a moment, he didn't react. Then his shoulders untensed ever so slightly. Higgs reached up and touched the brim of his airman’s cap, the faintest of smiles on his lips.

“Feelin’s mutual, my lady.”

The machine that kept Tarvek alive was reminiscent of a cocoon in shape and design, but cut lengthwise and turned on its back. Inside the cocoon were tubes and wires that ended in needles, pumps that would move blood and mysterious concoctions in and out of a body. There were also leather straps at the right height for the head, shoulders, waist, knees, and ankles of a man of average height. 

Gil had not made a snide remark about using them, in case Vole took him seriously.  

The machine was torturous – well, it was literally a torture device, designed to keep someone from dying of a poison without curing them, allowing one to observe and record a poison’s symptoms at one’s leisure. Vole had remarked, with unnerving fondness, that Lord Saturnus had found it a marvelous way to spend a rainy afternoon. 

But at the moment, it was also torturing the people who weren’t even hooked up to it, via a squeaky fan that Gilgamesh could not find without turning the machine off and taking it apart. He kept looking, though, because the only other thing to do in that room was sit quietly and watch Tarvek not die until Agatha got back. And he would keep not dying, with no cure and no comfort, dying forever and ever, but never managing to die. 

“It’s not going to work.” Tarvek’s voice was thin and hoarse. Gil stood so he could see over the lip of the pod and glared at Tarvek. 

“Well, unless you want me to turn it off so I can take it apart—”

“No. Not that. This. Curing me. It won’t work. There’s...there’s too many things this could be. The materials here are so old...it’ll take too long to identify the poison, and even longer to figure out how to reverse it.”

“You’re right,” Gil said breezily. “We’ll just have to leave you here to die.”

“Yes.”

An icy lump formed in Gil’s throat, and slid all the way down to his stomach.

“What do you mean, yes?”

Tarvek gave him an unamused look.

“I mean, if it takes longer than half an hour for Agatha to—” He flinched as a fresh wave of pain hit, then slumped back again. “—if it takes too long for Agatha to find an antidote, you need to convince her to leave me here.”

“I am not doing that.”

“You have to. She doesn’t have the time to waste on me.”

Vole, seated in the corner shining the brass on his uniform, rolled his eyes – or at least he moved his head in a way that suggested he was rolling them, it was hard to tell – and stood up.

“If hyu is goink to have de big self-sacrificink hero talk, I iz gon vait outside.”

When he was gone, Gil turned back to Tarvek.

“We need you alive, remember?” Gil rose and moved to stand next to Tarvek. He reached out to touch his arm, but hesitated. He could feel the fever heat rising from Tarvek’s skin without making contact. “So you can tell Baron Wulfenbach what really happened?”

“If Agatha gets the castle working at full capacity, it won’t...won’t matter who he believes. Sturmhalten marched on Mechanicsburg and attacked without authorization. Besides. If she...kills my father...the Baron’ll...probably give her...a medal.” He laughed, a breathless, bitter laugh. “I would.”

“You want her to kill your father?”

“Y es.” Tarvek’s eyes flew open and he glared up at Gil. “Someone has to. Someone needs to.”

“Listen, all of this is bad, but – but he’s still your father.”

“Would you say that about yours? Knowing all the things he’s done, all the deaths and fear and horror? If someone asked you if he should die, would you say no?”

Gil hesitated. He reminded himself that Tarvek was talking about Petrus Teuful, and Gil absolutely thought that man had deserved to die. But saying ‘yes, I think it’s good my father is dead’ was not something he wanted to speak into the universe, no matter what Tarvek thought he meant.

“But your father isn’t...my father.”

“Female Sparks in our generation go missing because the Geisterdamen kidnap them, in case they are Agatha. They bring them to Sturmhalten, where they strap them into a machine that tries to imprint the memories and personality of Lucrezia Mongfish on their brains. It doesn’t work, because they are not Agatha. The girls either die, or their minds are destroyed and the Geisterdamen kill them. And my father helps every step of the way.”

Gil’s mouth hung open.

“So yes. My father is not your father. But he needs to die. They all need to die.”

“You knew?” Gil exploded. He grabbed Tarvek by the shoulders and shook him. “Your father has been killing children for years, and you knew this whole time?”

“No!” Tarvek snarled. He was panting hard, but his glare was as strong and fierce as Gil’s. “I knew my father was involved in the Knights of Jove, and I knew they worked for Lucrezia, but I didn’t know about the girls until two years ago, and didn’t know what they were doing or why until after Agatha left!”

“Two years—!”

“Who would I tell?” Tarvek demanded hysterically. He grabbed Gil’s shirt and pulled, hauling himself up and Gil down until they were nose to nose. “Who would believe me? The Baron? After he threw me out? He would show up, and he’d look, and he’d find nothing, because we are very good at hiding from him, and then he’d call me a liar and leave and nothing would change except I would be dead!”

He let go and collapsed back into the machine, his chest rising and falling as he gasped for air.

“I think...Lucrezia...was involved...with the Other...somehow. It’s...connected, I know it is. I didn’t...have time...to find out how...before I ran.”

“Did you tell Agatha any of this?”

Tarvek shut his eyes. Slowly his breathing began to slow, until he could speak normally, although he still sounded out of breath. 

“I told her most of what I knew back in Sturmhalten. I haven’t told her anything new. I needed everyone to trust me. I couldn’t come in and say the darling wife of their Heterodyne was a monster. But then...you saw how Agatha reacted. I didn’t want to...distract her. She’s not safe until the castle is fixed. She’s going to hate me.”

He began to cry. Not the gritted-teeth gruffness of a teenage boy trying to be enough of a man to hide it, but the soft weeping of a boy on his deathbed.

“She’s the only friend I have,” he choked out. “She trusted me, and I didn’t tell her, and she’s going to hate me just like you do, and you were my best friend and I wanted to help you and now you don’t even care if I die.”  

“I do care,” Gil said. His voice cracked and so did the wall he’d been trying so hard to keep up in his heart, and he pulled Tarvek into a fierce hug, only just remembering to be careful of the needles and tubes hooked into him. “I care.”

“I don’t want to die,” Tarvek whispered, hugging back with all his strength, which was terrifyingly little.

“We won’t let you.” Gil's throat went tight. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I told the Baron about your hiding place. Agatha was right, I should have, I should have trusted you, you never did anything to me, but it was so much and I… No one had ever been that nice to me before, all the time, and it was…it was so easy to believe it was just another trick. The way you always talked about how your family did things…"

"That's…not illogical," Tarvek said. "But you were the first person I wasn't trying to use." 

“Hokay, I fou—” Vole froze in the doorway. Gil and Tarvek tried to jerk away from each other, but Gil had become tangled in the wiring. Vole let out an exhausted sigh. Gil turned red and even Tarvek’s face managed to scrounge up enough blood to blush as they tried to untangle themselves.

After the longest and most embarrassing fifteen seconds of their lives, Tarvek and Gil were free, and with much shuffling and throat clearing, looked to Vole. The former Jäger was slightly rumpled, and a button was missing from his jacket. He held up a blood-spattered leather case.

“If hyu two is done vit de touchy feelinks talk, Hy found anodder Smoke Knight. Mebbe hyu use dis to fix hyuself up.”

“Yes!” Tarvek exclaimed, eyes going wide. “Smoke Knights carry antidotes to all their poisons!”

Vole tossed it casually to Gil, who caught it and hurriedly unzipped it.

“I’ll—” He stared at the many, many vials and powders and needles, all of which were unlabeled. “Give...this to you.”

Tarvek selected a vial of something clear, uncorked it, sniffed, wrinkled his nose, and downed the contents in one go. He screwed up his face at the taste, but almost immediately the color began to return to his face. 

“It worked!” Gil exclaimed.

“No,” Tarvek said, although he already sounded normal. “That won’t last for long. It’s just to help me think clearly while I figure out what they gave me and how to fix it.”

“Und ven hyu is done makink sure hyu dun die, hyu fix voteffer dis iz.” Vole held up his hand, showing a long scratch on the back. The skin around it was completely black, and the cut was oozing purple. Gil and Tarvek stared in horror.

“Maybe we should fix that first,” Gil said weakly.

“Yeah, we should definitely fix that first.”

Chapter Text

“I vuz tinking dot if his poppa vanted him dead enough to send a Smoke Knight into der kestle, he vould really vant to make sure de job gets done, so maybe dere vould be more in here. Der kestle vent lookink und found dem, und sent de nearest vun in my direction.” 

“Good one,” Higgs said approvingly. 

Higgs and Vole were standing on either side of the door to the laboratory. Agatha had politely asked them to give her and the boys time to talk. Higgs had obeyed a request from a Heterodyne, and Vole professed no interest in teenage dramatics. 

“You what?” they heard Agatha shout. The heavy laboratory door muffled Tarvek’s response.

“Vut hyu tink?” Vole asked quietly, tipping his head. “She gon trow dot vun out der vindow?” 

“Nah,” Higgs said. “She’ll be mad, but she strikes me as the forgivin’ type.”

“Hmph.”

“Not the answer you wanted?”

Vole sighed heavily.

“I iz not gon do anyting to her, hokay? So hyu and efferyvun else can qvit standink around vaitink for me to tear her head off.”

“But would you serve her?”

“I iz not a Jäger.”

“Not what I asked.”

“No. I vant blood und var. She vill not giff me dot. She is not de kind of Heterodyne I vant.”

“’s just...I’m gettin’ the feelin she’s the kind of Heterodyne that’ll want you.”

Something very strange happened in Vole’s chest, and he glared at Higgs.

“How vould hyu know? Hyu din’t even know she existed until yesterday.”

“The Baron’s what?” Tarvek shouted. They heard Gil's urgent tone, but again, no words. Higgs briefly raised an eyebrow before returning his attention to lighting his pipe. Sounded like Gilgamesh had decided he trusted Tarvek after all. 

“Just the feelin’ I’m gettin’. She keeps askin’ about you, about what happened.”

“So a madgirl is curious about a mystery, vut else is new?”

Higgs opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off when the door swung open and Agatha strode out, a wide, fixed smile on her face. Tarvek and Gil followed with such a lack of tension and suspicion it was almost palpable. 

“I’m very glad we have had that conversation and this information has been shared, but if anyone else has any world-shattering revelations, they are to keep it to themselves until after we are done.” She looked to Higgs and Vole. “We had an idea: now that the castle is one entity again, the prisoners will have a much easier time getting things done in the live areas.”

“I am herding them to the kitchens as we speak,” the castle said cheerfully.

“There’s about twenty of them at the moment,” Agatha said. “If I put them all to work on one section at a time, between us and them, I can get all of the dead areas reconnected and improvements to the live areas to get the castle more power.”

“Und vy vould dey help hyu?” Vole asked. “Hyu can’t tell dem hyu iz de Heterodyne. Vut can hyu offer dem?" 

“A fully functioning castle is a castle that won’t kill them for going to the areas it sends them to fix,” Tarvek pointed out.

Higgs raised his eyebrows and looked at the ceiling.

“You agreed to that?” 

“I will not actively set off security measures,” the castle said primly. “If they set off traps themselves, they are quite on their own.”

Higgs and Vole glanced at each other, both wondering if these three knew just how impressive a compromise that was.

“Okay!” Agatha said, rubbing her hands together. “Let’s go conscript some Sparks—” Her stomach gurgled, loudly. “—and get some lunch.”

Herded was the right word for it – the prisoners were milling around the kitchen like cattle waiting for the slaughterhouse, regularly glancing up at the ceiling or eyeing the knives. The castle had not told them why they were there, only that they would ‘be there or be squared’.

“Excuse me, everyone!” The voice was young, female, and carried a level of politeness that simply did not exist in the social sphere of the Castle Heterodyne prisoners. Instantly on high alert, the prisoners glared suspiciously at the teenage girl standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

“Hello,” she said politely. “My name is Agatha Sannikova. I am here on the authority of Lord Saturnus Heterodyne, tasked to complete the major repairs necessary to bring the castle to full functionality. You may or may not have noticed, but the town is currently under attack. This puts us on a rather urgent timeline. I have brought you here to ask for your help, as I believe by working together, we will—”

“ Can it , kid,” Skinner snapped, baring oversized canines. “Do you think we’re just goofing around in here? We’ve been trying to fix the castle. People have been trying for over a decade . If we could do it fast, we’d’a done that by now.”

The girl’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“It is going to be different now, because we are going to be working with the castle. Now that the intelligence is centralized—”

“ What?” It was one of the newer prisoners, a balding, portly man clutching a leather-bound notebook so tightly it was twisting in his hands.

Agatha sighed.

“When the castle was attacked, the intelligence within was fractured. That’s why it’s been so inconsistent. One part will send you to fix something, but the intelligence in that part doesn’t recognize you and thinks you’re an intruder. I reset the castle, so now the only real worry is the security features that are not under its direct control.”

“But—but—but then what happens?”

Agatha looked surprised at the question.

“Then...we fix the castle and the town doesn’t get blown up?”

“To us! The Heterodyne sent you? Is he coming back?”

“He doesn’t plan to, as far as I know. As for what happens to you...I don’t know. The Baron might send you somewhere else, or he might leave you here to work on smaller repairs until the castle is one hundred percent fixed.”

This did not seem to calm the man in the slightest.

“But—! But—!”

A tall, broad-shouldered construct with a bull’s head bared his flat teeth in a grin and slapped him painfully hard on the back.

“Sorry, Tiktoffen. Looks like all your little notes are going to waste. Tough break.”

“Oh!” Agatha exclaimed. “Not at all! Any information you have would be extremely useful.”

But Tiktoffen was backing away, clutching his notebook to his chest.

“Who are you to be giving us orders?” he snapped. “How do we even know Lord Heterodyne sent you? And, and what authority does he even have in this town anymore? Why should—?”

“ Enough.” Agatha’s eyes blazed so fiercely, a few prisoners edged away from Tiktoffen in case he caught fire. “I do not need you to believe me; I do not care if you believe me.  My authority is that the castle listens to me. You are going to do what I say, when I say, because I say so. Understand?”

“Yes, Mistress,” the prisoners chorused. Agatha did not take her eyes off of Tiktoffen. Slowly, the man untensed and bowed his head.

“Yes, Miss Sannikova.”

Agatha beamed.

“Excellent. Now, the castle will guide you to the areas to work on. It will make sure the security measures don’t actively attack you, but you should still watch your step. I want everyone to cooperate fully with each other – the more we get done, the safer you will be. Mr...Tiktoffen, was it? I’d like to see your notes.”

“ Professor Tiktoffen, actually,” the man said stiffly, but he handed over his notebook as the other prisoners shuffled out. “Are you really in here all by yourself?”

“No,” Agatha said, flipping through the notebook. “My friends are hiding nearby, in case there was any trouble the castle couldn’t handle. I figured it was best to keep things simple, to cut down on any potential arguments. These really are amazing notes.”

“The professor took quite an interest in my mechanisms,” the castle preened. Agatha’s lips twitched in a smile and she rolled her eyes briefly, though fondly.

“Gil, Tarvek, come in and take a look at this.”

Two more teenagers stepped in, boys this time. The professor merely frowned when the first one entered, but at the sight of the second one, grew very, very tense indeed. That hair…

But when the Sturmvoraus boy looked at him, there was no recognition in his eyes, not even when Agatha gave Tiktoffen’s name. But he had to know. He had to know. The Fifty Families were very good at pretending not to know things; there was no possible way he didn’t know!

And even if he didn’t, he was still a Valois descendant standing in the middle of Castle Heterodyne with a girl who had to have been born right around the time the Heterodyne’s wife disappeared. And the castle listened to her…

“If I can make a recommendation,” he said abruptly. “It’s not one of the larger areas, but I suspect it might have some very important mechanisms within it. This area right here.”

“What’s the S stand for?” Agatha asked.

“It’s not an S,” the professor said. “I just like to keep my symbols as varied as possible, to cut down on the risk of confusing them. That means I think it’s important, but I can’t prove it yet.”

“What about this one over here?” Tarvek asked. “Where you have the S really big and circled several times?”

“It’s a living document,” the professor said smoothly. “I was less sure about this area than I am now – and more sure about that area.”

“But not anymore?”

“To be honest, I’ve been trying to find a good eraser,” he said, shrugging sheepishly.

“Well, we can always take a look at that other one later,” she said. “Castle, can you take us to the area next to the dining room on the...third floor?”

“At once, Mis…Sannikova.”

“We’re going to get something to eat, and then we’ll head out. Would you like to join us?” she asked Tiktoffen. 

“Ah...better if I don’t. The others will need someone to keep them focused. You know how Sparks can get.”

She nodded and smiled all the same. 

“Er, if I could just...hold on to my notes? I’ve...put rather a lot of work into them.”

“Oh, of course! I’m sure the castle can tell us what we need to know.”

“Yes,” Tiktoffen said, his hands once more tightening on the notebook. “I’m sure it would be...very easy for you.”

Tiktoffen left them raiding the supplies for sandwich materials. He moved slowly as he passed through the hallways, brow furrowed, deep in thought and deeply unhappy.

“Professor?”

“I’m glad you’re whole again,” Tiktoffen said. “I suppose I was just...well. I thought what we had was...different.”

“It is!” the castle insisted. “You made the effort to understand me when no one else would! You were the only one who considered my intelligence as something to be repaired, as well as the system itself. I will always be grateful for that.”

“But you don’t need me anymore, do you? You’ve got her.”

“I will always need good Sparks,” the castle reassured him, its tone almost beseeching. “Things will be different, but different does not mean worse! I am sure Master Heterodyne would be happy to have your assistance even once you are no longer prisoner here.”

“Right,” Tiktoffen said. “I’m sure he would.”

Chapter Text

The atmosphere in Gkika’s was tense in a way it had never been before. The Jägers too injured to fight, well…they’d never been happy about having to hide away, but that sense of being left out was mitigated by the daily brawls and – crucially – the fact that all the real fighting was happening far away.

Now there was a great big battle directly over their heads, now Mechanicsburg was in danger, and now more than ever did they feel their inability to do anything about it. Gkika had cut them off from anything stronger than beer, fearing what impulsivity drunkenness might bring.

There were new arrivals, ranging from ‘drink this battledraught and walk it off’ to ‘lost too many limbs to stand and/or throw a punch’. All the Jägers were crowded together at the tables, conversations running in circles, arguments heated, fear and frustration bubbling together.

“ Look at you lazy sons of bitches!" a voice boomed. "Sitting around drinking beer like there’s no work to be done!”

Several of the Jägers had jumped to their feet in a panic before they realized what they were doing, and caught themselves, confused. All jaws dropped at the sight of Saturnus Heterodyne seated on his many-legged walking chair like it was a throne, smirking at them with the old fire in his eyes.

“Hello, boys,” he said. “Did you miss me?”

Saturnus briefly disappeared under a wave of cheering Jägers, all of whom wanted to shake his hand or clap him on the back.

“Alright, alright! Alright! Shut up, already!"

The chattering died away, though the Jägers still grinned eagerly.

“We need to work fast. I'm up, but my hands aren't what they used to be. Those of you missing limbs will be getting prosthetics, good enough to get you fighting. When we've got time, I'll figure out a way to fix eyes and nerves, but for right now, priority is getting boots on the field. If you've got any questions or concerns—"

“Too bad!” the Jägers chorused.

“Attaboys.” 

“And next time you get your arm bitten off by a giant mechanical bear, do not immediately attack it again the exact same way.”

The Jäger's grin looked all the more sheepish for his curly white fur and curved horns.  

“At least it only cost me an arm und a leg, ya?”

Saturnus snatched up a wrench and waved it mock-threateningly. 

“Out with you!” he bellowed. “Begone, before I change my mind and take them back!”

The Jäger laughed, grabbed his hat, and took off out the door. Saturnus watched with amusement as the Jäger tested his new mechanical arm and leg by jumping into the air and punching a friend in the back of the head.

“Next!” Saturnus called.

“In!” he heard Gkika order.

“Hy dun need—”

“In!”

“Dis iz not a high priority!”

“Alexi Khrizhan, hyu get in dere before hyu hand rots off, or Hy vill finish de job vot dot clenk started myself!”

“Ho kay, ho kay!”

Khrizhan entered, scowling. Outside, Gkika pointed her axe at him meaningfully, and shut the door. Saturnus kept his face mostly impassive as Khrizhan thumped down in the chair and rested his arm on the table for Saturnus to examine. It wasn’t a bad cut, or a hard fix, but one that took delicacy – a clean cut straight through one of the arm bones, the second still whole enough to keep it in place. No fiddling around with wrist bones or the tendons in the hands.

All the same, it was not something to leave for the last minute.

“You should know better,” Saturnus said.

“Dun hyu start,” Khrizhan grumbled. Saturnus took his time selecting the pieces he’d need, measuring them against the bone. He only wanted to have to do this once – there was little more embarrassing than having to re-break something you’d fixed.

“You going to marry that woman anytime soon, or are you going to wait for the earth to fall into the sun first?”

Khrizhan glared at him, but there was something extra in that glare, beyond irritation at Saturnus’ friendly ribbing. There was, in fact, a lack of acknowledgement of the ‘friendly’ part. It was the look you gave someone who had crossed a line but you had to be polite and couldn’t say anything about it. Saturnus, uncertain as to when and why that line had appeared, finished sorting out the pieces and selected his smallest drill.

For a while, the only sound was that of Saturnus screwing in the clasps on either side of the bisected bone. It was careful work, making sure everything was lined up exactly. You had to get this part right the first time – if the pieces healed together unevenly, even the slightest amount, you’d be able to tell, and you could never get it exactly right again. At last, Saturnus connected the clasps and snapped the first one closed. Khrizhan grunted at the pain, but did not cry out.

“Boys are in a good mood,” Saturnus said conversationally, as if he had only been waiting for the tricky bit to be completed.

“Dey iz happy dot hyu came,” Khrizhan said carefully. “Dey iz...happy dot hyu iz happy to see dem.”

“What’s that mean?” Saturnus asked, and kept his movements careful despite his irritation.

“Hyu know demn vell vut Hy mean,” Khrizhan said in a slightly sharper tone. 

“Why don’t you elaborate anyway, just for kicks?” 

“Hyu haff been avake for six years.”

“And bedridden, which you and they well know.”

“Avake enuff dot hyu could haff sent word.”

“Word of what? What the hell would I have to say to them?”

“Exactly.”

The tone made Saturnus look up, and he was startled by the sharp disapproval in Khrizhan’s eyes and voice.

“Hyu silence iz loud, Master Heterodyne. Hyu dun ask about dem, hyu dun send vord dot hyu iz better – dot sounds like hyu dun care about dem, und dot hyu dun care if dey care about hyu.”

“Oh please.”

“It vould haff been vun ting if dere vuz no Heterodynes left, but ve had to leave a member of de family behind. Vun dot ve knew vould care. Did care. Who did not effen show up ven ve marched out.” 

Saturnus grunted. Oh yes, he thought bitterly, let all of Mechanicsburg bear witness to the broken shell of a Heterodyne being left behind by his own Jägers. That would have made things so much better.  

“Vhile hyu vuz sick, dey could tell demselves dot maybe hyu vould haff said someting if hyu could. But den hyu come back, und nottink comes. Year after year, hyu act like ve dun effen exist, und Hy haff had to vatch it in deir eyes vut dey tink hyu feel.

“Dey iz not happy. Dey iz relieved.”

“I didn’t think you would care,” Saturnus snapped, closing the last of the clasps. He wiped the blood off his hands and began to thread the surgical needle.

“Vy vould hyu tink dot?”

“Why would you? You were gone! You didn’t need me, you had the Baron to look after you.”

“Ve tried to put it in hyu hands,” Khrizhan snarled. “Ve asked hyu to tell us to go! Ve could haff been serving de Baron on hyu behalf! Hyu vere de vun dot made us choose! Hyu turned hyu back on us!”

It had been only a few months after the heart attack. Saturnus had still been trying to find his footing in Teodora’s house. Had been spending less and less time in public, always so aware of what people saw when they’d looked at him. The world had had a constant air of apprehension and entropy. The great winding down of Mechanicsburg’s soul: already shattered by the sudden death of its future, now forced to watch this slow death of its past.

He’d known what was going to happen the moment Castle Wulfenbach appeared on the horizon. When Klaus came to him, Saturnus had only told him that, as he had never formally taken back the role after Bill…left, he was not the Heterodyne. He had no say in the running of the town.

Garbage, obviously, but better than admitting he didn’t have the strength to run the town. Better than admitting he couldn’t stop Klaus if he wanted to, and oh, did he want to.

And then the generals had come to the door. And they had told him Klaus’ deal. No Jägers in Mechanicsburg.

They’d explained their reasoning and their plans and the details, all the ways in which they were arranging it so they no longer needed him. All the ways they were replacing him. Because he was weak and the Baron was strong.

That was when he’d turned his back on them – literally. He’d stood up and gone over to the window, and did not turn around until they left. 

“Served on my behalf ,” Saturnus sneered. “Like everyone and their mother wouldn’t have seen through that in a hot second. Grown men playing make-believe, pretending I could have done anything about it. Made it my choice? Oh yes, my choice to decide if I get to be the Heterodyne who sends his Jägers away, or the one who couldn’t stop them from leaving. Why should I have to bear that? You lot made that deal, Alexi, you can damn well own it.”

“Ve had. No. Choice.”

“Then why did you try to make it mine?”

The door slammed open.

Gkika stepped in.

The door slammed shut. The frame cracked slightly under the force.

“Master Saturnus,” she said, in a low, dangerous voice. “Iz hyu goink to ring de bell?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Saturnus snapped. He got to work stitching Khrizhan’s muscle and skin back together, hoping he could finish it before this conversation ended so he wouldn’t have to go back to the other conversation. “I’m not stupid. I can’t make myself Heterodyne, not with no one to come after me.”

“If hyu iz so schmott hyu knows better den to ring de bell, vy iz dere no hammer on mine vall?”

Ah.

Hmm.

Well. 

“Hy knows vut hyu iz doink.”

Saturnus went very still. 

“You do?”

“Ho yes. Hy know vut hyu iz plannink. Hyu tink Hy vouldn’t figure it out? Hyu tink Hy iz shtupid? How long did hyu tink hyu could hide it from us? How could hyu not tell us?”

“I…”

“If hyu vant to go out und die in de big blaze of glory, hyu can do it vitout puttink all of my boys in danger!”

“What?”

“No! Hyu shot op und listen to me! Hyu vant to die beink de Lord of Mechanicsburg, ya, all good for hyu, but unless hyu plan on effery last Jäger dyink alongside hyu ven de town falls, vut iz ve goink to do aftervard? De bell is rung, our deal vit de Baron is over, but ve dun haff a Heterodyne! Vut iz ve goink to do, sign de contract again?”

Saturnus opened and shut his mouth a few times. Khrizhan was eyeing him, but...well, if that was what they thought he was up to, it was certainly better than what he was actually up to.

“I...I don’t see why not!” he managed to bluster. “It’s not like you’d have done anything wrong!”

“Ve iz not de only vuns vaiting on de bell,” Khrizhan said sharply. “De pipple of Mechanicsburg vill haff to join de Empire again, und dey vill haff nottink . Vut else can he sqveeze out of dem if dey haff no choice but him?”

“The town will not fall.”

All three of them jumped. Unfortunately, Saturnus had the needle partway through Khrizhan’s musculature and the point of it rammed right into a nerve ending. To Khrizhan’s credit, he managed to bite back both the scream and the automatic reflex to punch Saturnus in the face.

“Iz dot der kestle?” Gkika asked. “Since ven does it come all der vay down here?”

“It is…not easy to reach this far,” the castle admitted, “but I needed to tell you: Miss Sannikova is...changing.”

Saturnus went ashen.

“Changing how? What is it? What’s happening?”

“Her spark grows brighter with each passing hour. She has conscripted the prisoners, and they yield to her despite her age. The longer she stays, the more she grows used to this power. She may not be willing to let it go...she may...make a choice...even if she knows...it is reckless…” The castle’s voice grew thin, fading away to barely more than a whisper. “The town will not fall. She will not allow it.”

Then it was gone.

The room was silent.

Saturnus stared at the wall, then made himself shift focus back to the task at hand. Would Agatha ring the bell? Obviously part of him had been hoping she would want to, but he figured it would be after all this was over. He’d imagined the two of them arguing to convince Teodora, and then ringing the bell. The idea that Agatha would grab her heritage by the throat and damn the consequences…

“Hyu do not seem concerned,” Khrizhan said, his voice managing to filter halfway through Saturnus’ thoughts.

“Hmm?”

“Dot sounds very much like der kestle tinks Miss Sannikova vill try to take over der town.”

“Yes, it would be quite remarkable at her age,” Saturnus said. My god, wouldn’t it just. Youngest Heterodyne in generations! And not through inheritance, no, by force ! Agatha was going to seize it. Because she wanted it, the way a Heterodyne was supposed to.

“It vould be a problem.”

“No, no, she’s a clever girl,” Saturnus said. “I’m sure Carson could advise her.”

“Der pipple vould not allow it,” Khrizhan said. He tilted his head, trying to catch Saturnus' eye. “Dey vould tear her apart.”

Ooh, yes, probably a good thing he’d told her about the running of the Heterodyne already. But still—

“No, she’s far too young for that,” Saturnus said, tying off the stitches. “Besides, it’s another six months til Solsti—”

“Master Heterodyne!” Khrizhan bellowed. Saturnus started, dropping the roll of bandages.

“What, what?”

“Dere iz a madgirl in hyu kestle, vun dot hyu told it to obey! She is breaking through, und it tinks she vill use it to take der town! Vy iz hyu so calm about dis?”

“Because it’s fine. She’s not going to take over the town, the castle’s just being dramatic. Worst-case scenario, we knock her over the head and put her somewhere quiet until she calms down.” And they probably should, he thought, regretfully. This wasn’t something to run into without plans.  

“No,” Gkika said, sharply. “Hy dun belief hyu. First hyu take de hammer to de bell, und now hyu dun mind if somevun not of de blood tries to take control of hyu town. Someting else is happenink here, und hyu iz keeping it from us.”

Saturnus grabbed a roll of gauze and began to bandage Khrizhan’s arm, tightly. He said nothing.

Gkika asked the question no one else had dared to.

“Iz she de Heterodyne?”

Anger flared in his chest, suddenly. Oh, now they cared. Now they wanted to fight for a Heterodyne, when there was one strong and youthful. Would they defy Klaus for her?

He turned and gave Gkika a withering look and the worst possible answer he could:

“I would not tell you if she was.”

He might as well have slapped her. Gkika took a step back, her color flickering from its decoy-human shade to various paling pastels. Saturnus quickly finished wrapping Khrizhan’s arm, and realized it was trembling slightly. So what? He grabbed a small bottle of battledraught and slammed it down on the table.

“Drink that, get out, send in the next one.”

Khrizhan downed the liquid in one go. He, too, was pale under the green, and rose shakily to his feet. Gkika turned away. Khrizhan put a gentle hand on her shoulder as she reached for the door.

“Wait.” Damn that girl. The stroke must have done more damage to his brain than its connection to his body. It had made his mind soft and malleable, and Agatha had come along and gotten… compassion in there. And guilt , and concern for people’s emotional wellbeing, and the idea that it was his responsibility to make sure his people were happy , not just fed and clothed and uninjured by outsiders.   

Saturnus gritted his teeth and forced the words out at knife point. “That was...unkind of me.”

They turned to stare at him, eyes wide.

“I’m sss. I’m sss.” The words stuck, his brain outright refusing to send the signals to his mouth to form the word, let alone the breath from his lungs to say it.

Both generals recoiled slowly, Gkika grabbing Khrizhan’s arm, terror in their eyes.

“I’m ssssunder. A lot of stress at the moment.”

The generals sighed in relief.

“When Agatha first got here, everyone thought...they hoped she might be. I know it occurred to you, too, when you first heard. And I’m sure you were as disappointed as everyone else. We encouraged that, Teodora and I. Klaus is a very clever man. Many people would consider his suspicion as good as proof. All it would take was one person thinking better take care of it, just in case.”

Their expressions were solemn, now, but still, still in the depths of their eyes he could see their pain and it infuriated him.

“Ve understand,” Gkika said softly.

“Do you?” he demanded. “Do you understand? None of this is about you, none of it has ever been about you!” His grip tightened on the arms of his chair. “I am a selfish man, I always have been, and you know this, so listen when I say that this is not about me!”

A strangled laugh escaped his throat; his eyes felt too hot.

“Is she a Heterodyne? Does it matter? She brought me back from something worse than death! She is my little girl! I want her safe, and since when have I ever given a damn about collateral damage in the process of getting what I want?”

He turned away from them, from those looks on their faces, from the complication of it all. In the old days, he would have gone out and found some town to turn to molten glass to work off this kind of feeling. He wanted to break something. He wanted to kill.

“Give me a minute before you send the next one in,” he said hoarsely. “I need to...clean up in here.”

“Yez, Master Saturnus,” Khrizhan said. Saturnus could read nothing in that tone of voice.

Chapter Text

“Do be cautious, Mistress,” the castle said, urgently. “Once you are through that door, I will have no visibility.”

“Relax,” Agatha reassured it. “We’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know,” Tarvek said. “That Tiktoffen...the name sounds familiar. And he was very twitchy.”

“Bein’ in here tends to do that to people,” Higgs said dryly.

“The name probably sounds familiar because you read about the horrible things he did when he was arrested,” Gil said.

“What did he do?”

“ I don’t know. But he had to have done them, otherwise he wouldn’t be in here.” Suddenly he put a hand on Tarvek’s head and ruffled his hair, hard.

“Hey!”

“ Speaking of twitchy," Gil said with a playful grin, "Mr Suspicious, not everyone is out to get you all the time.”

Tarvek smacked his hand away and fussily put his hair back in order.

“No, Gil, not everyone is out to get you all the time. I was just almost murdered.”

“Exactly. You’re on edge. You’re being paranoid.”

“It’s not paranoia if people are actually trying to kill me. I’m certain of it, Tiktoffen was worried about us. He didn’t like that we were here.”

“He’s probably just worried he’ll end up sent somewhere worse if the castle gets fixed,” Agatha said. “Castle, what are we looking for?”

“I honestly do not know, Mistress. I cannot recall what systems were so important here. But there must be something – the professor knows these areas very well.”

“Well, let’s go see what we can find.”

An hour later, Agatha sat back with a groan and pushed her hair out of her face.

“Well, we’ve got the automatic dumbwaiter working again,” she said wearily.

“And I’m pretty sure I just unclogged the heating pipes,” Tarvek said from the other end of the room.

“I’m still not sure what this is,” Gil said, staring down at a tangle of wires, “but I’m going to take a wild guess that it isn’t important either.”

In the corner, Vole slapped a card down with a smug “ha!” Higgs grumbled, but let Vole take the pile of paint chips they were using to keep score. It wasn’t exactly a fair game, since the deck they’d found was frayed around the edges and Vole was better at remembering which cards were torn which way, but it was still better than sitting and watching the Sparks.

Agatha, weary and irritable, sat back and crossed her legs and watched them absentmindedly as she adjusted her ponytail.

“I thought you said you were rusty," Higgs complained. 

“I tought I vould be,” Vole admitted, shuffling the deck. “Haffen’t played dis in mebbe tventy-five years.”

“What have you been playing?” Higgs asked as Vole dealt the hands.

“Notting.”

“Not much for cards?”

Vole snorted.

“No, I luff playink cards vit all dose friends I dun have. I vork, dot is vut I do.”

“All day every day?”

“Vut else is dere for me to do? I iz shtuck in dis shtupid town vere everyvun hates me.”

“Sounds rough.”

“It iz vot it iz,” he said. “Hyu goink to put a card down or vot?”

Higgs didn’t answer. He wasn’t looking at Vole. He was looking past Vole with very wide eyes, and holding very, very still. Vole, too, went very still.  Something about the expressions on their faces made all the hair on Agatha’s arms stand on end.

“Should I turn around?” Vole asked. 

“Nn-nn.”

“Iz it vut I tink it is?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Hey keeds,” Vole called. “Voteffer hyu do, dun. Move.”

Agatha heard the soft creak of door hinges, and saw Tarvek – who was sitting facing the door – go wide-eyed and pale.

Heavy footsteps padded into the room. The wooden boards creaked and groaned under the weight. Beneath that, the scratchy whine of unmaintained servos. Slowly, a bronze cat’s head appeared in Agatha’s field of vision and swung back and forth in a slow arc, ruby-red eyes scanning.

“What is it?” Gil asked, through clenched teeth.

“Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispenser,” Higgs muttered.

“Fun-sized?” Gil exclaimed, aghast. The cat did not seem to hear him, but Vole glared furiously. 

“ Vut part of dun moof do hyu gots a problem vit?” Vole hissed.

With a heavy but delicate step, the clank ambled in Agatha’s direction. It was the size of a large bull, with broad shoulders and massive paws tipped in claws as sharp as its teeth.

“They can only see movement,” Higgs said. “Without the castle to tell it what to do, it’ll attack anything it sees.”

Agatha swallowed a whimper.

The clank was so close now Agatha could hear the grinding of unoiled gears and feel the heat from the overworked engine. Agatha was trying so hard not to tremble, but her muscles were starting to ache, and her chest hurt, and she couldn’t breathe properly.

“Hokay,” Vole said. “Here is vut ve do. Ven it is past me, I iz goink to trow someting into de corner, und ve run .”

The clank turned its head away from Agatha. Instantly, the Jäger grabbed the pack of cards and hurled them across the room. The clank let out a roar that shook Agatha’s bones and lunged, snapping wildly at the cards as they fluttered to the ground.

“Go, go!”

They charged for the door, but Agatha had been sitting, and her legs had cramped underneath her. She stumbled and fell, rolling onto her back.

“Agatha!”

The clank saw her. She tried to go still, but it was too late. It charged. For a moment, her world was seemingly endless rows of metallic teeth and a gaping black maw – and then a blur of white and a scream that made Agatha’s guts clench.

Vole’s right hand held a dagger, the blade of which he had jammed into the hinge of the clank’s jaw to prevent it from shutting all the way. This was important, because his left arm was in the clank’s mouth and the clank’s teeth were buried deep in the meat of his shoulder. His skin had gone a chalky grey-green, and his mouth hung open silently as his chest heaved.

The clank jerked its head back and forth like a dog with a chew toy, but Vole twisted his knife, jamming it harder into the mechanism until a spring snapped and the clank’s mouth snapped open midswing. Vole went flying, hitting the wall and sinking to the floor, leaving a wide smear of blood behind. A gout of steam emerged from the clank’s mouth in an angry hiss, jaw twitching and gears grinding as it tried and failed to close it.

Hands latched onto Agatha’s arms; Gil and Tarvek dragged her towards the door.

“Wait!” she cried. “Vole!”

“We have to go!” Tarvek shouted.

“No! We have to lead it away!”

The clank was advancing on Vole, whose head lolled back and forth. Agatha snatched up a screwdriver and hurled it; it bounced off the clank’s head with a bong . It whirled around, spotted the three of them, and let out a roar that rattled the window panes.

“ Why did you do that?” Gil shouted.

“Shut up and run!” Tarvek shouted back. 

They charged out into the hallway. Behind them, the clank tore its way through the door in an explosion of splinters.

“We can’t outrun this thing!” Tarvek yelled.

“We have to get it back to where the castle can contain it!” Agatha yelled back.

“Which way is that?”

“ I don’t remember!”  

“Left!” Higgs shouted.

“Are you sure?”

“ Left!”

They skidded around the corner. Behind them, the cat clank got tangled in the moldy carpet and tripped, crashing into the wall.

“ Right!”

With a tearing of fabric, the clank was up again, thundering towards them. Straight ahead was a banister, cordoning off the empty space in the middle of a spiral staircase.

“I have an idea!” Gil shouted. “Split!”

“Split?” Agatha and Tarvek repeated in bewildered unison. 

Just as they reached the end of the hallway, just as they were staring out into the abyss, Gil grabbed Agatha and swerved right. Higgs grabbed Tarvek and swerved left. The cat clank hit the banister at top speed, smashing straight through it and tumbling into the darkness with an echoing roar.

Gil and Agatha tripped over each other and landed in a heap, the impact knocking the air from Agatha’s lungs.

She assumed, at least, that’s why she suddenly felt so breathless. She’d never noticed what a warm, rich brown color Gil’s eyes were, but now that his face was right above hers, they were impossible not to gaze into.

“...hi,” Gil said.

“Hi.”

“Are you alright?”

“I think so.”

“Um. That’s good.”

A few wayward locks of hair had fallen into his eyes. Agatha noted distantly that it was the same color as his eyes. She wondered if it felt as soft as it looked.

Gil jerked backwards with a hwuh sound, and stumbled slightly as Higgs set him gently on his feet.

“Careful now,” he said. “Mind how you go.”

Agatha got the feeling that that mild, unassuming tone of voice was not meant for her. Higgs offered her a hand up, and effortlessly pulled her to her feet. Agatha realized her legs were trembling with adrenaline and exertion; Tarvek looked much the same. Gil, on the other hand, wasn’t even breathing very hard. He looked more like he’d taken a light jog than a terrifying race for his life.

“Good call on that dodge,” Higgs said approvingly. “Should probably go back ‘n check on Vole.”

“What were you thinking?” Tarvek demanded suddenly at Agatha. “You got that thing to chase us!”

“What was I supposed to do?” Agatha demanded. “ Let it eat him?”

“Better him than you!”

“What would I tell Grandfather?” Agatha asked. “Huh? ‘Thanks for sending help, sorry I got the closest thing you have to a friend get horribly murdered?’”

“That’d probably be enough,” Higgs said mildly. Agatha glared at him, but he only shrugged. “Your grandfather’s old school. ‘Sides, dying for the Heterodyne’s part of what bein’ a Jäger is all about.”

“He’s not a Jäger,” Agatha said.

“Some habits die hard, I guess.”

“And so does he,” Tarvek said, fixing his glasses. “Here he comes.”

Sure enough, Vole was walking towards them slowly, swaying slightly but managing, through great effort, to keep himself in a straight line. His arm hung limp and his uniform was soaked in blood. He was still a bad color and his teeth were gritted, but he was far more alert than most people would be.

“Are you okay?” Agatha asked.

“Iz nottink,” Vole said through gritted teeth. “I haff had vorse.”

“Well, let’s make sure it doesn’t get worse,” she said. “Come on, let’s go to the next room on our list. Gil and Tarvek can at least get the castle reconnected to this section, and Higgs and I will get your arm patched up.”

Chapter Text

They were careful to peel Vole out of the jacket so they only had to cut away one sleeve of the shirt, preserving as much of it as possible. Vole appreciated the effort, sort of, but knew it was pointless. Both jacket and shirt were soaked in so much blood, he’d never be able to get the stains out completely. He liked the way he looked in white, but damn if he didn’t suffer for it.

It felt...strange to have someone else do the patching up, not doing it himself as best he could one-handed with a mirror and a lot of cursing. It had been a long time since he could just sit back and let the Heterodyne deal with it.

Not that it was the Heterodyne, technically – and not because the bell hadn’t rung. Higgs was the one doing the stitches, which Vole honestly preferred, after the girl admitted that she’d really only be helpful if he wanted her to embroider the wound shut.

But still. She was there, preparing suture and applying pressure to the parts Higgs hadn't gotten to yet. 

“Try not to move the arm if you can help it,” Higgs said. “I’m not doin’ much fixin’ here, more closin’ up the holes so you don’t die of blood loss before Master Heterodyne can get at it. Probably best to leave out the main doors—”

“I iz not leavink.”

“But—” Agatha began to protest.

“Lord Heterodyne ordered me to come in here und bring hyu und de Sturmvoraus boy back safe. Hy vill not be failink him chust because Hy – I got vun titchy liddle bite.”

“ Little?” Agatha exclaimed. Vole snorted derisively and nodded at the mangled mess of meat that was his shoulder.

“Din’ even take my arm off,” he said scornfully. Agatha rolled her eyes and sighed.

“ Fine.”

Vole shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall while they worked. It had to be the blood loss making him so tired. The only other possibility was the horrifying thought that he’d gone soft while stuck in this town with no proper fighting to be had. Vole refused to consider it.

“Thank you,” Agatha said suddenly. “For saving me. Again.”

“First rule of beink a Heterodyne,” Vole said, opening one eyelid. “Hyu dun say thank hyu.”

“First rule of being a Heterodyne,” Agatha shot back, “nobody gets to tell me what to do.”

Despite himself, Vole smiled.

“Hyu learn qvick,” he said.

A very particular expression came over her face, and his smile vanished.

“Dun hyu do it,” he said warningly.

“It’s just—”

“Do not.”

“There aren’t a lot of dead zones in the castle left, I may not get another chance to talk about this before—”

Vole groaned and let his head fall back. He glared at Higgs.

“Can’t hyu stop her?”

“I don’t think I could, no,” Higgs said mildly.

“Vould hyu leaf it alone already?” Vole demanded. “I made a mistake, he feels bad because he din’ realize vut I vuz goink to do—”

“No, you didn’t.”

“…Vut?”

“You didn’t make a mistake,” Agatha said, softly. Her eyes caught his and held them fast. “He did want them dead.”

“He did not vant me to kill dem,” Vole managed to say.

“That’s what you missed. He didn't want you to kill them. That doesn't mean he didn’t want them dead.”

“He din vant dem dead, either,” Vole tried to insist. “He vanted dem to not be a problem anymore.”

“And Heterodynes usually get rid of problems the permanent way,” Agatha said without malice. “And then when they caught you, he let everyone think you’d come up with it all on your own, that you were hearing what you wanted to hear. Grandfather wanted something no Heterodyne should want, and he was too ashamed to admit it.”

“…Yez,” Vole said reluctantly. “I said I vould kill dem if he asked me to, und he din kill me for dot. Din effen hit me. Dot’s how I knew he vanted it.”

Agatha’s eyes began to fill up with tears. Her lower lip started to wobble. 

“Voah, hey, vut—hyu can’t cry about dis, hyu iz de vun dot figured it out!”

“I know,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “But I wanted to be wrong.”

A very odd feeling twisted itself in Vole’s stomach. It had better not be guilt.

...it was definitely guilt.

Ugh.

“Dis iz vy I din vant to tell hyu!” he snapped. “It dun make tings better for me, it just makes tings vorse for him!”

He looked to Higgs to confirm, and saw Higgs was staring at him in a numb horror. Of course. The Jägers served for love and loyalty, theirs and what the Heterodynes gave them in return. Heterodynes understood loyalty as no other Sparks did. They were supposed to understand loyalty. If a Heterodyne was a danger to another Heterodyne, if a Heterodyne was not loyal to his own family, what did that mean for the loyalty he gave the Jägers?  

“For you ? I dunno,” Higgs said, looking away. “For Saturnus?”

“Ya. Dey could just kill me, but vut vould de Jägers tink? Vut vould Villiam do? He already din’ like his poppa; vere vould Saturnus go if dey trew him out? He vuz de last proper Heterodyne ve vuz goink to have, und I vould not let dot be his legacy.” He glared fiercely at Higgs. “Und hyu iz not gon tell anyvun about dot. Not effen de odder generals, not effer. ”

Agatha still looked like her world was falling apart around her ears.

“Vould hyu just…He din’ vant to vant it. I did . Hokay? Dot matters . Lots of pipple vant to do bad tings, hyu only get in trouble if hyu actually do de tings.”

The Baron had made that very clear to him when he was hired, although with more emphasis on the ‘getting in trouble if you do the things’ part.

“That’s...true,” Agatha said. “But that’d be true for you, too. You didn’t do it because you wanted to.”

“I offered because I vanted to,” Vole snapped.

“Would you have never killed them, if he asked you to never kill them?” Higgs asked.

Vole’s mouth snapped shut. The general was giving him a very... weird look. Sort of thoughtful and considering, like he was evaluating Vole in some way. Vole bristled. 

“ Vut?” he demanded.

“Nothin’,” he said. “Turn around. I’ve got to get the rest.”

Vole did so, and Higgs got to work. Vole, grateful that this finally seemed to have satisfied her enough to let it go permanently, shut his eyes again.

“That’s a different stitch,” he heard Agatha point out.

“If he’s not heading to Lord Saturnus right away, we want to tie it up tighter.”

“Oh. ...It doesn’t look that much tighter though.”

“Trust me,” Higgs said. “There. Now pass me the bandages, we’ll get this wrapped up and get out of here.”

“You know, I think it says a lot that he feels bad about it,” Agatha said, sounding like she felt better. “I’d hate to condemn him for actually acknowledging doing something wrong, for once in his life.”

“So dot means hyu two gun keep hyu mouts shut about dis, ya?”

“Yes,” Agatha said.

“Mm,” Higgs said, which was not reassuring.

The lights overhead flickered.

“Hello, my lady!” said the castle, jovially.

“We’re done!” Tarvek and Gil called in unison. There was a brief, but this time playful, scuffle at the doorway as they both tried to enter at once. Tarvek won, sticking his tongue out at Gil.

“Great timing!” Agatha said. “We’re just finishing patching Vole up.”

“It is odd, though,” the castle said, sounding puzzled. “I now have access to this entire sector, but there is nothing here I would deem even marginally important to my primary functions. It is not even large enough to particularly enhance my intelligence. The professor does not usually make mistakes like that.”

They all glanced at each other.

“There wasn’t anything important here,” Agatha said slowly. “But there was, um...what did you call it?”

“Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispenser,” Higgs supplied.

“Yeah, one of those. It almost took Vole’s arm off.”

“It did not,” Vole protested. “It bit me, dot iz not even close to de same ting.”

There was no response.

“Castle?”

“I remember,” the castle said, “that the prisoners do not know what the Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispensers are called. They named them steam cats, and the professor always keeps very close track of where they are.”

“I knew it!” Tarvek exclaimed. “The S on the maps! I told you! See! See!”

“Okay!” Gil said, throwing up his hands. “Okay, fine, you were right! He was trying to get rid of us!”

“But... why?” Agatha asked.

“I intend to find out.”

The prisoners worked with a speed and cooperation level that startled even themselves. They had excellent motivation, better than they’d ever had: the promise of a horrible, agonizing death being only a strong possibility, rather than a matter of time. It was a better deal than anyone had gotten within these walls in the last decade.

But there was something else in the air, an electric excitement – the Sparks had done the math, and concluded that there was, indeed, a non-zero chance that there might be freedom at stake.

“She must be a Heterodyne,” said Dr Gulo. “No master of Mechanicsburg would trust the repair of the castle to an outsider!”

“ We’re in here, aren’t we?” Dr Ulla pointed out.

“Yes, but Saturnus Heterodyne did not put us in here, the Baron did. The Heterodyne gave the girl authority over the castle!”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” someone else said. “No way anyone keeps a Heterodyne hidden from Baron Wulfenbach . And especially not in Mechanicsburg.”

There was a brief squabble over who got to throw the knife switch, during which Professor Tiktoffen threw it. There was a low hum and a crackle.

“Castle?” he called.

“Hello, Professor.”

A wave of goosebumps rolled over the prisoners’ various skins. Those who had hair felt it rise. None of them – not even Skinner, who had been there the longest – had ever heard that tone in the castle’s voice. It was far, far too calm, without the slightest hint of deviousness. Tiktoffen began to back up, and stopped. There was nowhere to back up to. 

Nowhere to run. 

“Miss Sannikova and her compatriots have successfully repaired the dining area.”

“ What? I…uh, good. Good. That’s very good.”

“They were unable to locate any systems of particular import. Neither was I.”

“Well, that, I did say that I wasn’t sure. It wasn’t an area we’ve mapped thoroughly yet because—” His mouth snapped shut, but it was too late.

“Because a Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispenser patrols the area,” the castle said. “Or in your parlance, a steam cat.”

“ That’s what they’re called?” someone hissed.

“I believe it,” another prisoner muttered back.

 “I—I—”

“You did not mention this to them.”

“I—” Suddenly, Tiktoffen’s face twisted in fury. “Fine! Yes, I did, and I did it for you! I know that boy, Tarvek Sturmvoraus! He wants to be Storm King – and everyone knows the old fairy tale! They’re working together! She’s going to take over, fake her way into being accepted as Heterodyne to help him! They’re just here to use you!”

“Lord Saturnus has spoken for her. He would not allow such a thing.”

“What could he do about it? He’s already half-dead! You said yourself he blames you for what happened to him!”

“He does not! ” the castle roared.

“They don’t even care about you! If they didn’t need you, they’d still be down there, leaving you to rot! But I came to you! I tried to understand you! I’m the one who loves you!”   

“Yes,” the castle said. “And perhaps, given enough time, you would have come to understand me well enough to know—”

The block of stone came down so hard, the impact threw everyone tumbling back.

“—my love lies with the Heterodynes.”

The prisoners righted themselves and stared in wide-eyed terror at the puddle of blood oozing from beneath the stone. When the castle spoke, it was in an ice-cold voice that boomed so loudly the prisoners clapped their hands over their ears.

“WORK. FASTER.”

Without another word, the prisoners lunged for their tools and scrambled to be the first to get back to their sections.

Chapter Text

“It is done,” the castle said.

“Er...what did Tik—”

“Irrelevant. I have resolved the situation.” The castle’s tone indicated that further inquiry was extremely unwelcome. “We have delayed long enough. You will go to the Chapel of Bone and prove yourself a Heterodyne.”

“Right now? But we’re almost done putting you together!”

“Now.” Its voice was cold, and brooked no argument. Then it hesitated and said, in a slightly different voice, “I need...certainty.”

Agatha felt a sudden pang in her heart. Between the Heterodyne Boys keeping it (and half the town) at arm’s length, parts of the castle thinking it had killed a Heterodyne for over a decade, being stuck up here with no one to care about it as anything but a tool to be regained control over, to go from being a home to a prison, to have no one want to even go near you…

After all that, to have someone honestly, genuinely want to understand it, must have been...nice.

She put a sympathetic hand on the wall.

“Would it make you feel better to destroy some of my enemies?” she asked cajolingly.

“...maybe.”

“Okay, well, those airships were being kind of aggressive. Why don’t you go remind everyone about the two leagues rule?”

“I...I suppose I could wake up the Torchmen…” the castle said, uncertain but slightly less miserable.

“There you go!” Agatha said. “That’s the spirit! You go show those airships who’s boss!” 

“Yes,” the castle said. Its voice grew stronger. “Yes, I am who is boss! I am Castle Heterodyne! The enemies of Mechanicsburg flee before my might! I do not need him! I have two Heterodynes, and the strength to defy all who would stand against them! BEHOLD! THE TORCHMEN OF MECHANICSBURG!”

They hurried over to the tall windows. Agatha had to use a sleeve to clean away the grime, not that it made much difference. This high up, the people were only slightly larger than ants. She wondered if that was why the Heterodynes viewed them the way they did – closer to people than outsiders were, but still just tiny, crushable insects.

She saw panic break out, the not-quite insects running around in circles, as a fire began to spread down one of the main roads. Not the whole road, actually, just along the edges, and not in a continuous line. Dots of fire...evenly spaced...

Agatha’s breath caught in her throat. One by one, the streetlamps began to burn. When the entire street was lit in flickering red and yellow, one of the fires began to ascend, lifting up from its perch. Then the next, and the next, until a great ribbon of flame snaked through the air, heading for the three great airships bearing the crest of House Sturmvoraus.

The torchmen closed in on the nearest airship and began to draw delicate lines of fire across the fabric of the balloon.

“Ohhh,” Agatha breathed. “I bet they’re beautiful at night. Not that they aren’t impressive now,” she amended.

“It’s a good thing you launched them,” Tarvek said grimly. “The town’s taken a beating.”

It was true. Lots of damage had been done: holes in the buildings, patches of fire, people rushing in a steady stream to – and not often from – the Great Hospital. The Geisterdamen’s spiders were easy to spot, their spindly corpses standing out sharply against the red slate shingles of the houses they had collapsed against. No live ones, but from up here she couldn’t be sure that their riders were equally dealt with, just as she couldn’t be sure they were all out of the castle.

No new ones would be entering, however. She saw one try, managing to get almost halfway over the edge of the wall before suddenly being dragged, screaming, back down again by some unseen force.

“Oooh,” Agatha said, pressing her nose against the glass, eyes wide and eager. “What did you wake up on the other side of the wall?”

“Nothing yet. I am afraid I do not quite have the reach. The Jägers are currently maintaining that territory.”

“The what?” everyone shouted.

“Er...I’m sure I mentioned…”

“ No!”

“Dot...iz gon be a problem,” Vole muttered.

“Oh, there are plenty of back doors we can sneak you out of, if needed – but as I understand it, the Heterodyne has no current desire to announce herself, yes?”

“Correct,” Agatha said, more firmly than she truly felt. “Not yet.”

“Why not?” Tarvek asked. “You’ll have the castle, you’re clearly able to defend yourself now.”

“I’m not ready,” she snapped. “Castle, how do you feel?”

“Independent!”

“...great! You go ahead and do that, and we’ll head for the – what? What?”

Gil was giving her a very odd look.

“That was...a little weird,” Gil said. Agatha puffed up indignantly.

“What’s so weird about being concerned for the emotional wellbeing of my castle?” she demanded.

“By letting it set people on fire?”

Her eyes narrowed.

“ First of all, I am having it set my enemies on fire. Second, do you have a problem with my castle, Gilgamesh?”

Tarvek clamped his hand over Gil’s mouth.

“Nope. None at all. Let’s get a move on.”

Gil glared at him.

“I’m saving you from yourself,” Tarvek whispered, as Agatha swiveled on her heel and flounced out of the room with her nose in the air. “Do you want another Mariia situation on your hands?”

Gil went bright red, and the fury of his glare turned up several notches.

“ Do you?”

Finally Gil made a sound to the negative, and Tarvek released him.

“Hoy!” Vole called from down the hall. “Ve iz not vaitink for hyu!”

Agatha’s indignant storming got her as far as the end of the hallway before she realized she had no idea where to go. Fortunately, Higgs appeared beside her and, with a tilt of his head, began to lead the way. They fell into step easily.

“Have you thought about what you’re gonna do with the army outside when you get the castle fixed?”

“Crush it,” she said, and gave him an odd look. “What kind of a question is that?”

“What if they surrender?” Higgs asked in response.

“Oh...well. Um...nothing, I guess. I won’t be the Heterodyne, so I don’t exactly have any authority to chase after them. I guess we just leave them surrendered until the Baron shows up.”

“And if you did have the authority?”

“I don’t know! I’m fifteen! I’m not ready for the brutal reality of military command!”

All the same…

She’d listened to Saturnus talk about things belonging to him, the town, the people, the Jӓgers. Agatha had chalked it up to his evil nature, to view people as things to be possessed. But now, suddenly, she understood – or perhaps she was arriving at the same feelings from her own, less evil angle.

These people were hers. Not possessions, but still possessive, hers . Her fury that someone would dare attack what was hers. The need in her heart to ensure they were kept safe, and that she be the one who did it. To crush those who threatened what was hers. She struggled to put it into words, even in her head. Perhaps for now she would have to be satisfied with the nameless feeling of certainty and love and determination.

“Prince Sturmvoraus needs to be taken care of,” she said. “Gil and Tarvek and I talked about it. The Geisterdamen, too. They’re the ringleaders. Everyone else...it feels wrong to slaughter people who are here because they were told to fight. It’s not like the Jägers. These soldiers didn’t all choose.”

Higgs nodded, but Agatha couldn’t tell if it was in approval or not. They walked in silence for a few more minutes, until Agatha glanced over her shoulder. Vole wasn’t lagging behind, exactly, but he wasn’t moving as quickly as he had been.

“So you...know the generals,” Agatha said, very softly. “Personally, I mean. How they think. If I could get them to understand what happened, do you think…?”

Higgs lit his pipe, a trick Agatha was beginning to suspect was his way of buying himself time to think of an answer.

“Maybe,” he said finally. “Other side of the coin, will he. ”

“I’d like him to stay, at least while Grandfather is alive. Grandfather could use a friend. And...Vole misses him, I think. And it does make a difference, doesn’t it?”  

“It does change things,” Higgs admitted. “But it was still an order he shouldn’t’ve followed. And he said he’d probably have done it anyway.”

“But he didn’t. You can’t punish people for things they might have done. And he didn’t kill me. He doesn’t want to, he said so.”

Higgs raised his eyebrows and tipped his head, expression considering.

“There is that. I think he’d want to stay for Saturnus, at least. But the generals...they’d need some convincin’. Somethin’ concrete. Seein’ is believin’ and all that. ”

They came to a halt in front of a large door framed on either side by two large statues: identical women holding a lantern and an axe, and not wearing much by the way of clothes. Gil and Tarvek came up beside her, trying to pretend not to see the statues, but focusing on the great bronze letters stamped across the doors.

“'Bibliotheca'?” Gil read.

“It’s Spanish for library,” Tarvek said.

“I know that,” Gil said, jabbing him in the ribs. "It's spelled wrong." 

The statues juddered, the lanterns flaring.

“You must choose,” one statue murmured.

“One must die so one may enter,” said the other. 

“Ooh,” Higgs muttered. “Forgot about that.”

Agatha drew her little gun. She still wasn’t sure if it worked, but the statues didn’t know that.  

“No.”

The two statues looked at each other.

“But—”

“ I will count to three.”

“The test is passed,” the statues chorused quickly. “Enter.”

Agatha heard someone behind her snicker. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw the statues shoot whoever it was a dirty look.

Agatha grabbed the door handle and shoved. Tarvek grabbed the back of her shirt as she pinwheeled in open air, the ground several stories away. Tarvek managed to haul her back, and they both sat down hard, clutching at each other, Agatha’s gun skittering away across the stone floor.

“Hey!” Gil exclaimed.

“Tradition, I’m afraid,” the castle said, almost – almost – believably apologetic.

“Is not,” Higgs said.

“Shush.”

Agatha narrowed her eyes.

This room was lower than the one they’d been in before. She had a better look at the town, and she could see spots of fire in the town below, broken rooftops and craters in the streets, damage the castle could be stopping, but wouldn’t, because it was still, still, playing games with her.

A few bricks wobbled up from the emptiness below and began to form a narrow, shaky bridge across the void to the door on the other side.

“Oh please,” Agatha said. “Like you’d really do it.”

“It is supposed to be a test ,” the castle said. Agatha threw up her hands.

“Fine, fine, alright,” she sighed.

And took off running.

She ignored the shouts of alarm behind her – and around her.

“Wait! Hey, wait, not so— You’re not supposed to—!”

The bricks shot up from below, some of them practically catching Agatha midfall, as the castle scrambled to keep up with her. Agatha kept her eyes fixed on the far doorway, not letting herself think about heights or falling, and in moments had zipped through the doorway and into a long, dark hallway.

“There,” she said smugly. “Test passed.”

“Yes, yes, very clever,” the castle said.  

And opened the floor beneath her.

Chapter Text

Gil had finally managed to convince Tarvek to stop pacing, and they now dozed in a spot between two pillars, leaning against each other to stay upright. Higgs leaned against the open door, looking out over the open space to watch the battle down below.

“Seein’ some mechanics on the Jägers. I think Saturnus ‘s been workin’ on ‘em.” The only response he got was an irritable grunt from Vole, who was slumped against the closed half of the door, sullenly nursing his shoulder. “You doin’ alright down there?”

Vole glared at him.

“I’z fine.”

“You’re broodin’.”

“I iz not.”

“What’s got you bothered?”

Vole was silent for a moment.

“She should heff just run ,” he muttered. “Ven der clenk vuz after us. It vuz comink for me, she vuz behind it, she should heff just run . She made it chase her. To save me. Vy vould she do dot?”

“Like she says, she’s somewhere between her father and uncle, and her grandfather. She’ll crush people in battle, but she won’t leave a man to die. Not to mention you’ve saved her about a dozen times by now, and you’re close to her grandfather. She’s thinkin’ of you as one of hers.”

Vole curled his lip in a half-hearted sneer.

“Too bad for her. I vants blood und var. She vill not giff me dot.”

“Neither will Saturnus,” Higgs pointed out. “Not anymore.”

“Only because he can’t. Dot iz not his fault. Und he did ven he could. He vuz a real Heterodyne.”

“I don’t think he would, now, even if he could. She wouldn’t like it.”

“Den dot iz her fault, not his.”

“Just like it was the Boys’ fault you didn’t get to fight, and not his for turnin’ the town over to them? Or for lettin’ his wife make them good?”

“Vut iz hyu tryink to do, make me hate him?” Vole snapped. “He iz my Heterodyne, he vuz good to me, I iz loyal to him. Und I dun care if she did safe me, she iz not der kind of Heterodyne I vants.”

“But she’s the kind of Heterodyne that wants you.”

Vole almost flinched at that, and turned his head away.

“Hyu said dot already.”

“So did you.”

Vole said nothing.  

“Would you come back, given the option? Take the Jägertroth again?”

“I dun need to take it again,” Vole said, to Higgs’ astonishment. “I neffer broke it.”

“You tried to kill —”

“I vuz doink it for my Heterodyne. I neffer broke de troth.” Vole’s lips curled and he dropped his voice to a vicious, poisonous hiss. “Hyu trew me out. Hyu made me leaf. Hyu sent me avay, und den hyu abandoned de Heterodyne ven he needed hyu most. But I came back. I iz de only real Jäger left.”

“And when he’s gone?”

“Den de line vill be dead,” Vole said, “und Jäger vill mean nottink.”

“And if he asks you to stay? To keep her safe?”

“Now hyu vants me to stick around?”

“Well, it turns out the situation is more complicated than we knew. I’m just tryin’ to sort it all out.” He puffed on his pipe, staring down at the fighting below. When he spoke, it was slow and thoughtful, as if working out his own thoughts out loud. “We became Jägers for love and blood – some of us more one than the other. You were in it for the blood, I know that, but yer not the only one. But you are the only one who tried to kill a Heterodyne. As you say – you probably would’ve done it anyway, eventually. But nobody else tried. What makes you so different?”

“Maybe dey iz just cowards.”

“Hmm. Interestin’, make no mistake.” Another long, thoughtful pause. “You’re one of Ferros’, right? If I remember, he picked you pretty quick. You only served, what? A year? Year ‘n a half? Before he offered you the draught.”

“So vut?” 

“As I recall, Saturnus was always the spittin’ image of his grandfather, body and mind.”

“Ya, big deal, so vut?”

Higgs shrugged. Another long moment, but Vole remained tense and wary, knowing Higgs wasn’t done. He’d managed to get the girl to let it go, only for this one to decide it was now his problem to solve.

“I couldn’t stand the Red and Black Heterodynes.”

“...vut?”

“Those two drove me crazy. All that arguin’. Put ‘em both in a room and that’s it for gettin’ anything done for the rest of the day.”

“Ya, ya, but hyu served dem anyvay because dey reminded hyu of a Heterodyne hyu did like. I can see vere hyu iz goink vit dis. Hyu tink I should serve her because she iz his granddaughter. Vell, I von’t. I dun care who she is. I vant to fight. I vant var. I’z not stayink.”

“Not even if he asks you to?” 

Vole hesitated.

“No,” he said, though he did not sound as certain as he’d meant to. Reluctantly, he amended, “Mebbe until he died, I vould, but not after. Not foreffer. Und I vould do it for him, not for her , because he—”

“Master Saturnus is weak in every way you could name,” Higgs said, suddenly, sharply, brutally honest. Vole could only stare up at him, mouth hanging open in shock. “Teodora won every argument he ever had with her, because his love for her made him weak. Those boys turned out good because he wasn’t strong enough to drown out her influence. Yeah, he gave you blood and war – and he let the boys take it from you.

“He turned the town over to Bill – and we all know it wasn’t his idea. That was probably Teodora too. He hated what they did to it, but he was too weak to stop them.”

“Shot op,” Vole said, shakily.

“And you! He dropped you right in it, and he knew it, and he let it happen.”

Vole scrambled to his feet. 

“ Shot op.”

“He was too much of a coward to stand up for you, and you were his favorite.”

Vole let out a roar of fury and lunged for Higgs, driving him backwards to slam against the statue hard enough that it had to adjust its footing to keep from tipping. Eyes blazing and overbright, he brought his hand down, claws bared. Higgs grabbed his wrist and twisted, pulling him down so they were eye to eye. Behind him he heard a scuffling sound, Tarvek’s voice hissing “Don’t!”, Gil’s saying “ But—!” and a furious shushing. 

He kept his eyes on Vole but dropped his voice low enough that – he hoped – the boys couldn’t hear him. 

“Saturnus Heterodyne failed you so utterly and completely even he couldn’t find a way to blame it on someone else. You resigned yourself to spendin’ at least the rest of his life stuck in this town with none of that blood or war you want so bad, surrounded by people who hate you, just so you could keep him safe. Because even you can overlook weakness in people you love.”

He let go of Vole, who backed away, eyes so wide there was the faintest ring of white around the edges of black.

“Maybe think about that.” Higgs turned back to the open doorway. “And maybe think on bein’ able to forgive a Heterodyne who wouldn’t risk his pride to save you, compared to one who’d risk her life.”

A spear slammed into his back. He stumbled forward, out into the open air, down, down, down – and gone. Tarvek let out a shout. He shot to his feet, dragging Gil up with him by the shirt, and raced towards the open door.

They were halfway there when a Geisterdame dropped from the ceiling.

“And here at last, we find the little traitor.”

Tarvek went nearly as white as she was, and the name fell from his lips in a terrified whisper.

“Lady Vrin.”

Chapter Text

“Aaronev truly believed you, you know,” Vrin said. Her voice was cold and smooth, polished ice dripping with disdain. There was a saber in the scabbard at her hip, but she did not draw it. “Even when you ran, he tried to convince me that this was somehow a plan, that you intended to act as a double agent, perhaps to open the gates when we arrived, or sabotage the defences from within.“

She stepped forward. Tarvek stepped back. He reached out a hand to pull Gil back with him, and grasped empty air. Tarvek didn’t dare look away from Vrin to see where he'd gone. 

Gil wouldn’t run, he told himself, firmly. Even if it wasn’t for me, he’d never run from a fight. And, and even if I’m the one in danger, things are different now, they aren’t back to normal but we’re okay. I know we’re okay.

“It wasn’t until our agents told us they had intercepted your message to Mechanicsburg that he was convinced. Even now, if it was he who found you first, I believe you could have spun some lie to convince him to let you live.” Her lip curled and she spoke in mocking tones. “Oh, he had such faith in his son.”

“If that’s supposed to make me feel bad,” Tarvek said, “it isn’t going to work. Even if I believed you, which I don’t , I’d have to care about my father’s good opinion to be sad I’d lost it.”

Vrin drew up sharply, briefly indignant. Her already pale lips paled tighter as they pressed together, twisting into an irritable frown. 

“A shame you did not inherit your father’s loyalty. Perhaps the Goddess could have taught you to love her, as she taught your father.” Vrin drew her sword and Tarvek took another step back. “But you are unworthy. I will take care of you , and then I shall take the Holy Child back to Sturmhalten, where she will fulfill her great purpose. Our Goddess will walk again.”

Vrin moved with lightning speed. Her saber crashed against the crossed blades – jagged-edged and wicked-looking – that Gil held in both hands.

“The Heterodynes have some really fascinating trophies,” he said with a smirk, nodding his head back. A little further up the hallway, a suit of armor lay sprawled on its front. Its head was so flattened it was almost two-dimensional, and now its torso had been disconnected from its lower half and one arm was attached only by wires. 

It had two empty scabbards on its back, and was attempting to drag itself down the hallway by the fingertips of its single functional arm

With a strength that shocked Vrin and Tarvek both, Gil twisted his swords and wrenched the saber straight out of her hand. He even managed to keep it trapped long enough to toss it behind him to land at Tarvek’s feet. Tarvek scooped it up and swung hard, knocking aside the spear a second Geisterdame was about to drive into Gil’s unprotected back.

“You still talk too much,” Tarvek grumbled. “This isn’t a Heterodyne Boys story.”

“I knew you had her,” Gil said confidently. This startled Tarvek badly enough that he almost failed to parry the Geisterdame’s next swing. “Uh oh.”

“Do I want to know?” Tarvek asked.

“Two more, behind Vrin.”

“Yes indeed,” she said, pleased.

“That won’t be enough,” Gil said. “We won’t let you touch Agatha.”

Vrin snorted.

“Two children and a wounded Jӓger against four of the Goddess’ chosen? This will be laughable.”

“Vole, shut the door!” Tarvek yelled. Vole reached out into the open space, grabbed the doorknob, and jerked the door closed with a bang. All four Geisterdamen raced for him. Tarvek grabbed Gil and dragged him back when he tried to stop the one Tarvek had been fighting from passing.

“What are you doing?” Gil demanded.

“We wish to enter!” Tarvek bellowed at the top of his lungs.

Instantly, the two statues shuddered, eyes and lanterns brightening to a blazing light that dazzled the Geisterdamen, who backed away.

“You must—” the left statue began, and stopped. Both statues looked around carefully. Seeing no sign of Agatha, they relaxed. “You must choose.”

“One must die.”

“So one may enter.”

“Them!” Tarvek shouted, pointing at the Geisterdamen.

The statues were massive, three times the size of an average woman – and the women they were modelled after had not been small in any sense of the word. Though the statues would have been filled with gears and wires, rather than solid metal, the weight of them was still palpable. Just looking at them, you knew the ground would shake with every step they took.

Which was why it was all the more surprising that they moved faster than the Geisterdamen did. Tarvek didn’t even see the first blow – one moment, a Geisterdame had been standing there, the next, the statue’s axe was buried in the floor, having bisected the woman.

Lengthwise.

Tarvek’s stomach rolled, but it was almost worth it for the look on Lady Vrin’s face.

“You dare!” she howled.

The next closest Geisterdame tried to run, but Vole sunk his claws into her mane of white hair and yanked hard, dragging her to the floor. She screamed and threw up her hands, which did absolutely nothing to protect her.

Vrin and the final Geisterdame managed to dodge the next blows, although Tarvek was sure he saw a few clipped strands of hair fluttering to the ground. While Vrin lashed out at the statues, the final Geisterdame simply tried to run. Gil and Tarvek jumped to block her exit.

They worked in tandem, and it was so… easy . As easy as it had been on Castle Wulfenbach, standing up to the bullies that did not consider Tarvek’s title wide enough to shelter Gil, as well. They each trusted the other to be where he was needed. No hesitation. No uncertainty. One would block the Geisterdame’s blow, the other would swing at her, forcing her to move back. 

Her blows grew more frenzied as she began to panic, but that only made it easier. Gil and Tarvek saw the nearest statue draw her axe back over her shoulder. Without even needing to look at each other, they both dropped to the ground and latched onto the Geisterdame’s ankles, pinning her in place. She began to turn to look over her shoulder at her impending doom, but didn’t even make it halfway.

Her head landed with a wet thud on the ground between Gil and Tarvek.

“ Eukh ,” Tarvek said, letting go of the Geisterdame to wriggle sideways away from the head.

“Don’t be such a baby,” Gil said, just as the Geisterdame’s headless corpse tipped over and landed on top of him. He let out a shriek and thrashed his way free. Tarvek started to laugh, despite himself, although it was edged with more than a little hysteria.

Vrin, meanwhile, backed slowly away from the statues, her sword upraised. Vole grinned wickedly. 

“Hyu is in Castle Heterodyne now, lady!”

“The cost has been paid,” the statues intoned, and went still again.

“What!” Gil exclaimed. “But there’s still one more!”

“…only three of us,” Tarvek groaned.

“I hate dis place,” Vole growled and lunged for Vrin with his good hand. Vrin slipped by like a gust of smoke and slammed her fist into the bandage on Vole’s shoulder. He let out an animal roar of pain, but stayed upright.

He lashed out with his injured arm, catching Vrin off guard and sending her flying. It cost him, though – he stumbled back, ashen-faced, a flower of red blooming on the bandage. Vrin’s foot caught him in the stomach, knocking him onto his back. He rolled just as her sword came down, twisted and lunged, catching her around the waist and driving her backwards into the wall.

With only one arm, however, Vole could not pin her. Vrin landed two more blows on his injured shoulder – and this time it sent him to his knees. She darted out of range, motions as smooth as a dancer’s, and readied herself for his next move.

It didn’t come. Vole tried to stand, and dropped back down again. As Gil and Tarvek began to advance, swords once more in hand, Vrin stepped backwards, until her foot knocked against something that clattered, metal on stone. She looked down.

Both Gil and Tarvek froze – and Vrin saw it in their eyes. She swung down and scooped up Agatha’s gun.

“What little trinket is this?” she asked, examining it. “Is this the work of the Holy Child?” 

Vole tried to stand and fell again. This time he had to catch himself on his hands, and he landed hard. He cried out and grabbed his shoulder, barely stopping himself from falling sideways. Blood oozed from between his fingers and dripped down his sleeve in ink-blossom strands, stark against the dirty white fabric. 

“So unlike her mother’s work,” Vrin mused, turning the gun this way and that, not sparing Vole a glance. “Too much of her father’s blood, I suspect.”

“No,” Vole said. “Her poppa vuz veak. He vuz an insult to de family name. She is stronger den he ever vuz.” 

A look of surprise briefly crossed Vrin’s face, then realization – and contempt. 

“I know you,” she said. “The once-Jӓger.” Her lip curled in disgust. “The oath-breaker. Yes, the Goddess told Milvistle of the tale, once. How weak the Jägertroth must be.” She tipped her head to one side. “And yet even as you insult the one you were made for, you fight for his child. Would you not rather work with us? Remove the last of this line you so despise?” 

Vole forced himself to his feet, his injured arm hanging limp and useless at his side. He bared his teeth in his own sneer of contempt. 

“Hy dun fight for his child. Hy fight for my Heterodyne. Und Hy vill die before Hy let you take her.” 

Vrin shrugged and pointed the gun at him.

“If you insist,” she said calmly, and pulled the trigger.

Chapter Text

“Welcome home, my lady,” the castle said. “Officially.” 

Agatha dug a handkerchief out of her pocket – Teodora always insisted that she carry one – and pressed it to the cut on her hand.

“Is that really it?”

“Would you like me to set up a gauntlet of devious traps and riddles designed to test the mind and madness of all who would claim the title of Heterodyne?”

“No,” Agatha said quickly.

“That’s what I thought.”

Agatha watched the blood seep through the fabric, deep in thought.

“My lady?”

“I want to make something clear,” she said. “I’m not Grandfather. I don’t want to pillage towns or torture people or lay waste to anything.”

“Understood, my lady,” the castle said, though she could tell it was disappointed.

“But I’m not my father, either. I don’t want to go running around hero-ing all the time. I just want...I want to be here. I want to do science. I want to be with my family. I appreciate the work my father and Uncle Barry did to make this place less evil, and to make Europa not hate and fear us all, but personally I'm okay with us being less than perfectly good all the time.”

She tried to tie the handkerchief in place one-handed and let out a noise of frustration. Biting down on one end of the handkerchief, she worked to tie it with her other hand.

"Especially when it comes to defending my town," she said through her clenched teeth. “I recognize we need to kill the officers and the Geisterdamen, but I want any of the rank and file to be allowed to run away if they want.” 

Agatha finished tying the knot and pulled with teeth and free hand so it was snugly secured, then let go. 

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, I don’t want you to take it the wrong way when I order you to use every weapon at our disposal to destroy the enemy outside.”

The castle did not immediately respond.

“Do you understand?” 

The castle asked, slowly and hesitantly, “When you say ‘destroy’, what kind of destroy are you thinking?”

“What do you mean?”

“Literal, metaphorical, emotional…?”

Agatha considered, then nodded decisively. 

“Meatgrinder.” 

“Oh, you ARE going to be fun!”

The ground outside the town walls rumbled, causing defender and attacker alike to stumble and flail for balance. Abruptly, the rumbling stopped.

“Good morning, everyone!” boomed a voice.

“…hallo,” one of the Jӓgers said.

“Welcome home , gentlemen! Your assistance has been appreciated, but I shall take it from here.”   

As one, the Jӓgers turned and began to run.

The statue to the right of the door was gone. The carpet on the hallway on the right side of the door was gone. The furniture and paintings were gone. The light fixtures were twisted wax-candle blobs of melted metal. The walking suit of armor was a charred, immobile husk. 

All that was left of Lady Vrin was a small pile of ash.

“Hokay,” Vole said numbly, from where he’d thrown himself flat as Vrin pulled the trigger. “Iz a real good ting Miss Agatha din’ try to use it." 

There was a polite knock on the door to the void between the hallway and the Chapel of Bones. Vole looked back to Gil and Tarvek. Both had been thrown back by the concussive force of the explosion, and now sat on the floor, clutching each other and staring unseeing into the distance. Vole sighed.

“No, no, dun trouble hyuselves, I vill get it.” He had to dig his claws into the mortar between the stones in the walls and drag himself up. It was a painful process, and once he was on his feet he had to take several moments to lean against the wall and get his breath back. 

Another knock, one that indicated the person on the other side was willing to be patient, but would very much like to come in.

“I’z coming, I’z coming,” Vole growled. He staggered over to the door, and opened it to empty air.

Higgs was hanging from the door frame by his fingertips. The only signs of his injury were some bloodstains and a hole in the back of his shirt and jacket. He did not seem more than mildly irritated by his present position. Vole stepped aside, and Higgs hauled himself back in and brushed himself off. Vole pulled the door most of the way shut, in case any other surprises came out of the dark.

Higgs glanced at Gil and Tarvek, mentally marked them as out of commission for the time being, and put his pipe in his mouth, though he did not light it. He took in the surroundings, particularly the remains of Agatha’s gun, which had opened at the back like a metal flower in bloom.

“You fight for your Heterodyne, huh?” 

“Hy vuz talking about him ,” Vole snapped.

“You sure?”

“Yes! Hyu tell anyvun Hy — I said dot, und I vill kill hyu,” Vole growled, aware that they both knew it would have been an empty threat even if he wasn't missing half his blood. Higgs nodded amiably. 

“How about you sit down before you fall down?”

Vole leaned against the wall and scowled. He reluctantly admitted, “If I sit down, I dun tink I vill be able to get up again.”

There was a clattering of stone outside, and Higgs pushed the door open again. A much sturdier bridge, complete with delicate metal railings, was building itself across the open space between the two sections of the building.

Agatha approached, hand bandaged and expression solemn but triumphant.

“It’s done,” she said, stepping back inside. “I…”

She looked at Gil and Tarvek. She looked at Vole. She looked at the swath of destruction down one half of the hallway. She looked at Higgs, who filled his pipe.

“What’s going on?”

“Had a bit of a to-do,” he said calmly. “It’s all taken care of.”

Agatha spotted the remains of the gun.

“Oh. Hmm.”

“Gggg,” Tarvek managed.

“Are they going to be okay?”

“’s just shock,” Higgs said. “They’ll be fine in a minute.”

“Nnn,” said Gil.

Agatha looked out over the town again, watching the castle’s offensive capabilities in almost full swing. It was clearly a little rusty but having a good time, and it was a relief to all present. Agatha wrapped her arms around herself, feeling a warm glow of pride thrumming under her breastbone. Pride in herself, and pride in the strength of her town. 

And yet, all was not well. There was an itch in the back of her mind, a tiny biting dissatisfaction.

“You could do it, you know,” Higgs said casually.

“Do what?”

“Be the Lady Heterodyne. You’ve got the castle. The Jӓgers are right outside.”

“The castle isn’t fully repaired.”

“Repaired enough to fight off an army.” 

“For now,” Agatha said. “It’s running on stored power. Besides, we still have the Baron to deal with. And I’m only fifteen. And...” She trailed off. “I can’t.”

“What happened to ‘I’m a Heterodyne in Mechanicsburg, I can do anything I want?’” he asked. Agatha glared at him.

“Maybe I think I’m not ready to be the Heterodyne yet.”

Oh, but she knew she was. Higgs could see it on her face. She’d wrangled the castle even before her grandfather helped. The prisoners had yielded by force of her personality alone. She’d fixed the castle when no one else had been able to. She’d faced down Smoke Knights and Geisterdamen and a Fun-Sized Mobile Agony and Death Dispenser. She had the heirs to a kingdom and an empire wrapped around her little finger, although Higgs wasn’t sure she’d realized that one yet.

You didn’t get much readier than that.

Abruptly, Agatha turned away and moved to kneel in front of Gil and Tarvek.

“Hey,” she said, gently. They didn’t respond. She reached out and put a hand on their cheeks. Slowly, their eyes focused on her. “Are you two alright?”

“We’ve probably acquired some long-term trauma,” Tarvek managed. “But I think we can be functional in a few minutes." 

Agatha took a hand each and squeezed gently. Gil’s eyes fell on the bloody handkerchief on her hand.

“You did it.”

“We did it,” she corrected.

“We helped, ” Tarvek corrected firmly.

Agatha looked from one to the other, and then threw her arms around them and hugged them tightly.

“Thank you. Both of you. For everything.”

There was a sudden shout of alarm from Higgs, and they all looked up to see him just managing to catch Vole before he hit the ground. Before they were even all on their feet, Vole had recovered and was pushing Higgs away, glaring at him.

“I’z fine,” he growled.

“You seem extremely not fine,” Agatha scolded. “We need to get you to Grandfather.”

“We’ll need to get your grandfather to him ,” Higgs said, and added, “if you ring the bell.”

“But then what will you do?” Agatha asked Vole. 

“Hyu already know vut vill happen,” Vole said. “I told you: I iz only assigned here to keep me und de Jägers avay from each odder so dey dun kill me. Vunce dere is a Heterodyne, de Baron vill assign me somevere else.”

“But you don’t want to go,” Agatha protested. Vole bared his teeth at her. 

“Dun hyu tell me vut I vant.” 

“Don’t worry, Mistress! It’s only until his hundred-year probationary period is completed,” the castle said.

“Uh...right,” Vole said. “Ya.”

“Although, I am surprised that the Jägers would kill you when you already received your punishment…”

Agatha narrowed her eyes.

“You know already, don’t you?”

“A dead area is one I cannot control. It does not necessarily mean I cannot hear,” the castle said smugly.

“Den vy haffen’t hyu tried to kill me?” Vole demanded. The castle chuckled.

“Oh, I think you know very well why.”

Gil looked from Vole to the ceiling, frowning.

“Why?”

“Hyu mind hyu own business,” Vole snapped at him.

Agatha rubbed her arms and began to pace, a strange energy beginning to fizz in her nerves.

“Castle, how is it looking out there?”

“Swimmingly!” the castle cried. “ Master Saturnus and Lady Vodenicharova send their love. Most of the Jägers have retreated to a distance, or are on the walls – I thought it best as my, er, precision may not be as fine as it could be, at the moment.”

“Good, good.”

“Ooh! Von Blitzengaard is drawing back! How very typical!”

“Let him go,” Agatha said. “The Baron can deal with him.”

“What about my father?” Tarvek asked. 

“The Sturmhalten forces remain steadfast. I have not been able to identify your father, so I am making sure to kill anyone that looks official in ways that would not destroy any identifying features.”

“Wow,” Agatha said, genuinely impressed. “You really do know what you’re doing.”

“My lady is too kind.”

“Not your lady yet,” Higgs said. “Not officially. She stays Miss Sannikova ‘til the bell rings.”

Agatha’s eye twitched.

“Right,” she said. “And...and remember the plan, Tarvek. We say this was all your idea, and you designed the machine to restart the castle, because I’m…”

Stupid, useless, broken little Agatha Sannikova. Pathetic, tragic, could never be a Heterodyne.

“I’m, I’m just…”

But she’d still helped, she’d had a hand in saving the town, people would at least think of her as competent, if nothing else.

Tarvek Sturmvoraus saved the town, can you believe it? And Agatha actually helped! I guess she’s not totally useless.

“Agatha?” Gil said softly. “Are you okay?”

To have to go back to being Agatha Sannikova. To have no respect. To have to hide her spark, to be an object of ridicule at school. To stand there and watch the Jägers leave. When the Baron got here, she’d have to convince him – and if she couldn’t? What if he blamed it on Tarvek? What if he blamed her? To have him be able to punish her people? Her town? To have him ask for – no, even to expect some kind of apology from her? Her, the Heterodyne, having to say she was sorry for causing the Baron trouble, when it wasn’t even her fault to begin with! Sorry for someone coming into her town and going after her people— 

“My lady?”

“What?” Agatha snarled. Everyone took a large step back.

“Castle Wulfenbach has crossed the horizon. I expect it shall make contact in approximately five hours.”

“Now?” she exclaimed. She felt like she was about to explode; she couldn’t remember ever feeling so angry, so helpless, so trapped. “We don’t need them anymore! I’ve got it under control! I don’t need their help! I don’t need—”

She stopped. Agatha closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, letting the breath carry away all of her anger and frustration, the way Teodora had taught her. Her boiling blood calmed to a simmer; her racing mind grew still.

Think calmly; think logically. What does your heart want? What are you feeling? Accept it. Acknowledge it. Set it aside, just for a moment. What should you do? Why is it should? Because it’s the right thing? Because other people expect it? What are the consequences if you do what you want? What are the consequences if you do what you should? Good consequences, bad consequences. Think of them all. Can you accept them? Are they worth it?

The answer came to Agatha from heart and mind, steady, solid, certain.

“Yes,” she said softly. Then she straightened her shoulders, redid her ponytail, and dusted herself off. She had taken some of Bill’s old clothing out of storage to wear as work clothes, and they were serviceable, but not very well-fitting. “I just wish I had something a little more suitable to wear." 

Tarvek’s eyes lit up.

Chapter Text

“Black fire,” Saturnus muttered under his breath as he and Teodora headed up the road towards the house. “ Take a nap, you’d think I was some sort of invalid. Things are just getting good! I’m going to miss the best of it!” 

“Saturnus.”

“I’m not saying no,” Saturnus grumped, in the tone of a man who knows he has thoroughly lost an argument. “I’m — ”

Teodora’s hand clamped down on his shoulder, halting him in place. Her eyes were wide and fixed on a manhole cover in the center of the road. Saturnus did not need to ask why.

The manhole cover was rattling like a lid on an overfull pot, a fine grey mist spilling out from the edges in soft, roiling waves. Faster and faster until it was spinning in place, until all at once - the pressure broke.

The cover burst up into the air, and a column of the grey mist erupted in such a rush, the suction snapped up fallen leaves and flower petals and dragged at hair and clothing. When the column was six meters long, it stopped growing, the last of it breaking free from the darkness below. It continued to rise until the top of the column was at eight meters. As if hitting an invisible wall, it came apart, a rope unravelling, thick strands curving back towards the ground.

And then the strands began to fall apart into individual clouds, each a meter and a half in length, formless but for the two small circles of yellow light deep within, silent but for the low, ceaseless murmuring of unintelligible voices. They sped down, down towards Mechanicsburg. Seconds before impact, they veered off. They glided centimeters above rooftops and roads, swerving around obstacles, always returning to their original trajectory – towards von Blitzengaard’s army.

“The fog merchants,” Saturnus marvelled.  “I haven’t seen them in decades, they can only be released by the…” His breath caught in his throat. “By the Heterodyne.”  

Slowly, they turned to look up at the great bell tower, where Octavo had begun to stir.

“She’s going to do it,” Saturnus said, and genuine panic began to fill his voice. “Does she even know— What if she’s not ready? What if this isn’t enough? What if the people don’t accept her? You can’t unring the Doom Bell!”

“She’s ready,” Teodora said. Her eyes shone with an excitement she had not felt in a long, long time. “And she’s going to be amazing.”

Klaus stood at the window of the bridge of Castle Wulfenbach, watching Mechanicsburg slowly drift into view as the great airship made its ponderous way across the Heterodyne Valley. No matter which accusation was correct, this was going to get very complicated very quickly. 

“Mechanicsburg in view, Herr Baron! Military activity confirmed! Sturmhalten army is showing signs of severe losses! Mechanicsburg is…um…doing pretty okay, actually.”

“Whoa!” someone yelped. “Was that a land shark?”

Klaus stared down at the scene before him. There was a lot of movement from down below, but most of it seemed to be the Sturmhalten army fighting for survival or escape. There were a few ragged banners that suggested the Refuge of Storms had been involved at some point, but they were all that could be seen above the low-lying cloud of fog that had settled over the area.

“Many of these defenses should not be operational,” he said.

“Perhaps they repaired them?”

“No. I know those weapons. They were directly under the castle’s control, which means the only way…” He stared out at the town that was growing rapidly closer.

“Slow our approach,” he said, abruptly. An uneasy certainty filled his stomach. Klaus reached into his pocket and drew out an old spyglass. It had been one of the few things he'd managed to recover from the original Castle Wulfenbach, and over the years he had modified it into something powerful enough to suit a man who ruled from the skies. 

So powerful that Klaus could see the flakes of corrosion that fluttered to the ground as the great statue began to peel itself from the bell it had been leaning against. It rolled its shoulders, flexed its hands, and bent down to pick up something that had been left at its feet. 

“All hands!” Klaus roared. “Brace yourselves—!”

Some of the Jägers had been on the wrong side of the army when the castle came to life and unable to safely retreat. Figuring that being on top of the wall was not the same as behind it, technically, they had sat themselves on the edge of the parapet, legs dangling over the edge, enjoying the show. Many of the townspeople had joined, and they made a merry group drinking in the chaos and cheering when their favorite machine or monster made an appearance.

“ People of Mechanicsburg!”

The voice echoed across the town and bounced off the nearby hills, reaching the ears of everyone in Mechanicsburg. Everyone looked around.

“Vot iz...vere iz dot comink from?” one of the Jägers asked. Another one twisted around and pointed.

“Dere! Up by der kestle!”

The paving stones of the castle’s road had pulled free of the ground and formed a long staircase, still unfolding, down which a figure was descending. They were still too far away for their face to be made out, but for many present, it did not need to be.

“No,” someone gasped. “Oh, she can’t do that—!”

“The nerve—!”

“Who does she think she is?”

“The castle is mine!”

“Where is Lord Saturnus? Someone stop her!”

“Vut’s goink on?” a Jäger asked the woman beside him. “Who is dot?”

“Agatha Sannikova,” the woman informed him, almost vibrating with outrage. “Lady Teodora’s ward! The insolence—! ”

“Not her granddaughter?”

“Definitely not! The girl’s an idiot! She’s just some outsider the lady took pity on! Everyone knows that!”

The Jäger looked back up. The staircase had widened out into a platform from which Agatha Sannikova stared down at Mechanicsburg. She wore a sturdy leather bodice over a flowing-sleeved white shirt stained in engine grease and blood. Around her waist was a black skirt, patched together in thick white lines of thread, reminiscent of a construct built of many pieces. An unhemmed black cape flapped dramatically in the wind. The Jäger took in the blazing eyes, the proud stance, the expression that said I am exactly where I am meant to be, whether you like it or not, and it is going to be your problem.

“...does she knows dot?”

“I am your Heterodyne!” Agatha spread her arms wide. “Tremble before me!” 

The hammer hit the bell.

Chapter Text

The sound of the Doom Bell cannot be described, only its effect: the bone shaking, blood freezing, mind breaking wave of sound that coated the tongue in a coppery tang and sent brains scrambling for emergency shutdown. It was a sound that made all who heard it feel as they had on the worst days of their lives, all at once, amplified a thousand-fold. 

Except to the Heterodynes, who felt the vibrations like a warm embrace and the song like a thousand voices calling them home. 

Agatha’s first emotion, as the people of Mechanicsburg slowly got to their knees – or fell over and threw up – was relief that they believed her. Then she was relieved that she only felt relief, and not wicked glee at the thought of those who once mocked her now cowering before her. The thought of tormenting those who had tormented her did occur but she recoiled from it immediately, instinctively.  

She hadn’t even wanted to say the ‘tremble before me’ line; she’d just been afraid the castle wouldn’t ring the bell if she didn’t.

Thank you, Grandmother, she thought fervently, for making sure I didn’t immediately go mad with power.

The Jägers – who did not know her, who had never seen her have a crying breakdown over a complex algebra problem, and thus had no reservations or preconceived notions about her, who knew only this, her moment of triumph – began to cheer.

Imagine being surrounded by several hundred people who think everything you do is the greatest thing anyone’s ever done, Grandfather had said.

He had been right – it did feel nice.

They came swarming over the walls and through the gates, laughing with delight at the very sight of her.

“Generals!” she called. Three – no, four very large Jägers pushed their way through the crowd. She recognized them from her grandfather's descriptions: Goomblast, Khrizhan, Zog, and Gkika. They all looked up at her, expressions unreadable. “I couldn’t see from the castle. What is the status of my army?”

A ripple passed through the Jägers; the generals glanced at each other. Agatha wondered if she had said something wrong or something right. 

“Dere iz injuries,” called Goomblast. “But no deaths. Der kestle ken deal vit der remainink forces.”

“Excellent. Thank you all for coming so quickly. Things would have gone much worse without you.” She hesitated, wondering if it was a Heterodyne thing to say – and realized that if she said it, it was a Heterodyne thing to say. “I look forward to meeting all of you.” Agatha smiled brightly. “Welcome home.”

The Jägers cheered again, and this time, the townspeople began to join in. The crowd dissolved, shopkeepers disappearing into their stores and coming out with food or drink; older generations welcoming home old friends and introducing their wide-eyed children; a surprising amount of kissing.  

“Agatha!”

Agatha lit up at the sight of Teodora and Saturnus. Without being asked, the castle created a sharply curving set of stairs that brought her down to the ground where she could throw herself into the arms of her grandparents. They both hugged her fiercely.

“I did it,” Agatha said breathlessly. “And I—I hope it’s okay, but I think I can do this, I want to do this, and I’ve got you and the castle and—”

Teodora put a hand on Agatha’s cheek. She had tears in her eyes, but her smile was brighter than Agatha had ever seen it. Saturnus, too, had eyes that were overbright, holding her hand tightly and grinning with a genuine happiness that contained almost no evil at all.

“You did beautifully,” Teodora said.

“We’re so proud of you,” Saturnus said.

“You’re grounded,” they said.

“ What!”

“What in the world were you thinking, running into the castle like that?” Teodora scolded. “You put yourself and Tarvek in mortal danger!”

“You took the castle out of commission in the middle of a battle!” Saturnus continued sharply. “You hamstrung our already hamstrung defenses for almost a full day!”

“You can’t ground me, I’m the Heterodyne!”

“Oho, just you watch us, young lady,” Saturnus said.

“You are allowed out for school and your responsibilities as leader, but that is it. No library, no market trips, nothing.”

“For how long?” Agatha demanded, aghast.

“ Until we say so ,” they chorused.

“Agatha!”

Gil and Tarvek came tearing down the road, waving wildly. Agatha pulled away from her grandparents and met her friends halfway, the three of them colliding in a massive hug that nearly sent them toppling to the ground.

“You were amazing,” Gil said, starry-eyed.

“I told you you could pull it off,” Tarvek said. “ Perfect abandoned lab chic.”

“The cape did look great,” Agatha admitted. She glanced around. “Where’s…?”

“Back in the cellars where we first came in,” Tarvek said. “The prisoners got it connected to the main intelligence, so we can go in safely.”

“Grandfather,” Agatha called over her shoulder. “We need your help with, uh...one of our friends . He was injured by one of the castle’s defences. ”

Saturnus grew concerned.

“How bad?”

“He was conscious when we left him, but it can’t wait,” Tarvek said.

A shadow fell over Saturnus. Very slowly, he looked up to see all four Jägergenerals glaring down at him.

“Master Saturnus,” Gkika said icily. “Ve vould like a vord.”

“Time to face the music,” Teodora muttered.

“In a minute,” Saturnus said.

“ Now vould be good,” Goomblast said in the same icy tone.

“I have to take care of this first.”

“Send de doctor to take care off it, if it iz so bad,” Zog snapped. “Ve—”

“My lady!” the castle cried. “Good news! We have located Prince Sturmvoraus! He has been dealt with most soundly!”

“What’s the bad news?” Saturnus demanded immediately. “You never say it like that unless there’s bad news.”

“Captain Vole is currently bleeding to death in the nice sitting room and my lady has yet to press-gang a suitable cleaning staff.  Once the blood dries, it’ll be simply impossible to get it out of the upholstery.” 

A cold prickling washed over Agatha, her breath growing tight in her lungs.  

“Okay, okay, um, we, we need—surgical supplies and—and—what was it, what—what did you tell me about, for the Jägers, the—”

“Battledraught?”

“That! Yes! Do we have any of that? I need it, right now, someone bring it into the castle.”

Zog snorted.

“Ve’z not gon vaste it on dot vun—”

“I gave an order.”  

A door opened within Agatha’s mind, and it led to something beyond the madness place. This was where the Heterodynes had thrived, the place that housed the wicked deeds the waking mind must justify, and from it emerged something new and dark and sharp and dangerous. 

Agatha grabbed it, this wild thing that demanded obedience and craved power, that saw the world as a toy to break and fix as she pleased. It fought, thrashing in her grip, screaming for blood, for retribution against the sin of defying her whim. Her ancestors had let it run free; her father had locked it away; Agatha lashed it to the anvil, hammered down with all her will again and again, not beating it back but shaping it, iron in the forge, not a weapon, not a shield, but a tool .

A tool that would sit in the workshop of her mind. She would leave it nestled tidily alongside the ones her grandparents had given her: compromise, patience, intelligence, a well-placed punch, a wide range of bullheaded defiance in shades of good and not so good. It would be a tool that she would use when it was appropriate, but one she would use, and keep, and care for because it was her, and would always be her.

And it would obey , this darkness of her blood, strength of her name, because she was the Heterodyne, and she said so.

“You do not choose who lives or dies in this town. I do. Bring me the battledraught.”

She did not wait for any answer, but turned on her heel, cape flapping behind her, and strode up the road towards the castle, her grandfather behind her.

The nice sitting room was nice. The chairs and couches looked well-stuffed and soft; the carpets were thick and plush. There was a fireplace in the back, the perfect distance from the seats to keep you warm without overheating those closest. A small fire burned there now, making the room comfortably warm.  

It was hard not to think about how it was a good place to curl up and die.

Vole wasn’t curled up, exactly, but sprawled over a couch that was so large he fit with room to spare. Only by very careful examination could one differentiate between the bandage and the remains of Vole’s jacket, as they had both been white and were now equally dyed in crimson wet. It wasn’t just the shoulder anymore – he had several stab wounds, deep and fresh, across his torso, many very close to important organs.

His hat, somehow still spotless, was set carefully on the corner of the coffee table, within easy reach but out of danger of being stepped or bled on. 

“I’ve seen worse,” Saturnus said.

“That’s not funny,” Agatha whispered.

“I’m not kidding,” he said. “I once stitched up a Jäger who’d been cut in half and he was walking around like nothing had happened barely two weeks later. He’s just being dramatic, aren’t you, Vole?” Saturnus raised his voice slightly.

“Ken’t a guy effen die in peace,” Vole rasped, not opening his eyes.

“You’re not dying .”

“Got me in...in der back. Hit sometink important, Hy tink.”

Agatha grabbed the end of the coffee table and pivoted it around to make room for her and Saturnus, though she was careful to keep the corner with Vole’s hat close enough for Vole to grab, if his arm was still working. 

Saturnus put his hands on Vole’s side and rolled him up slightly. The entire back of Vole’s jacket was soaked through, and no matter how skilled the cleaners Agatha pressga– hired, there was no undoing the damage to the fabric.  

“Ooh. Yep. We better get a move on.”

Agatha helped her grandfather peel Vole out of his coat and shirt. The smell of blood was almost overwhelming, and she felt her stomach roll at the mangled mess of Vole’s shoulder.

“Black fire , how did you pop this many stitches at once?”

“Not my fault,” Vole grumbled. “Shtupid Geister lady hit me dere a couple times.”

Saturnus tutted.

“Let’s get some pressure on these so he doesn’t bleed out while we work." Staunching the wounds did not require fine motor skills, and Saturnus' hands moved with a quick efficiency that Agatha envied. "Alright, Vole, what do you have to say for yourself?”

“Hy remembered dot de Geister lady said dot it vuz a good ting she found de kid forst, becawz his poppa might heff let him live.” His voice was rough and distant. “Hy vuz tinking about it, und Hy realized mebbe dot means he is in here , lookink for de lady. Only a few places left der kestle can’t see, und if he gets out, ve might not be able to find him.”

He cut off with a groan as Saturnus rolled him onto his side. 

"Judging by the location, I think he managed to nick your liver." 

"How do we fix that?" Agatha asked, horrible visions of performing invasive surgery on a concious subject flashing before her eyes. 

"We don't. When it comes to Jägers, if it doesn't kill them immediately, they can probably bounce back. Since it's no longer actively gushing blood, it's probably sealed itself back up again already. That means all we have to do is close the gap. Come here, m’lady, I need your hands." 

Agatha knelt beside him and took the needle and thread he passed her.

“Careful now. In here and out there – just like that, well done. Pull tight but not too tight, like this, and then back in again. Attagirl.”

“I don’t think I’m very good at this,” Agatha said, her voice shaking, though she kept her hands as steady as she could. The stitches were uneven and the knots untidy. 

“No one is on their first try. Don't worry about it – it doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to work.” He sighed and muttered to himself. “I knew I should have taught you this earlier.”

“Why didn’t you?” she asked.

“Because it’s gross and I don’t like it.”

She burst out laughing, but he put a gentle hand over her mouth.

“Surgery first, then hysterics. Hey!” He put a hand on Vole’s head and ruffled his hair, hard, until Vole’s eyes opened again. “Stay awake. Then what happened?”

Vole grunted.

“Found him. Killed him. Had der kestle drop him in der freezer.”

"And you let him stab you this many times?" 

Vole grumbled.

“He vuz faster den he looked. Und Hy vuz tired.”

“Alright, on your back. Let’s get at the rest of them.” 

Vole fell back. His eyes began to close again.

“Hy’z tired,” he whispered.

“Up!” Saturnus patted his cheek roughly. Vole forced his eyes open. Even this close, Agatha couldn't differentiate between pupil and iris, or even tell if there was one, but somehow she could tell when his eyes focused on something over her shoulder. Vole's mouth twitched in a humorless smile.

“Dun vaste hyu energy,” he said. “Hy’z gun be dead in ten minutes anyvay.”

Agatha looked behind her. The generals had arrived, looming in the doorway. Higgs was there, too, dwarfed by his younger comrades. Gkika was holding a green stone bottle. She crossed the room and knelt beside Agatha. When she twisted the cork out, the air filled with a licorice scent so thick Agatha could taste it. 

When she held it towards Vole, however, the Jäger leaned away from her, lip curling. 

“Oh stop,” Saturnus scolded. “You know poison can’t survive in battledraught.”

Between them, they got Vole upright enough to drink deeply from the bottle – not the whole thing, but a few large swallows. When he lay back again, he was still ash-pale, but he looked slightly more alert, and his breathing was more even.

Gkika recorked the bottle and picked up another needle and thread from the medical kit. Without a word, she got to work on Vole’s shoulder.

“Vy not let der kestle deal vit de prince?” Khrizhan asked, abruptly. “If he vuz in here.”

“Because der kestle ken’t see ,” Vole groused. “All doze Smoke Knights vuz in here, und it din’ find dem until it looked.”

“Unfortunately true,” the castle admitted. “I can just about manage to be here and down in the town at the same time, but I am having difficulty spreading my consciousness uniformly across my boundaries.”

“Maybe de prince kills his kid und leaves, or maybe he tries to grab der lady. Dun know if ve found all der Geisterdamen. Maybe he vaits a few days til ve relax. Hy’z not gon vait to find out.” Vole glared at Khrizhan, sullenly. “Vut hyu vant from me? Hy kept my Heterodynes safe. Both of dem.”

“Hyu’z not a Jäger.”

“Hyu can kick me out of der pack,” Vole said, eyes sliding shut again. “But Hy have my oath. Hyu can’t take dot from me.”

The world grew far away and strange. Some part of Agatha could hear Saturnus talking, and that part followed his instructions, but the rest of her watched, confused, as stitches seemed to march themselves across Vole’s skin.

And then gentle hands were wiping blood off of her hands with a warm, damp rag.

“There you go. He’s all set. Just needs to rest. So do you.”

Something heavy wrapped around her shoulders, so heavy it dragged her down into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Chapter Text

Klaus left Castle Wulfenbach at the traditional two league distance, because there were still Torchmen flying in formation around the perimeter of the town, and went on foot. After much argument with Boris, Klaus agreed to a compromise: Klaus would go alone, taking the road to the Bone Gate, and in return for Boris not sending a squad to follow on his heels, he would take his greatsword with him. 

The moment Klaus set foot over the two league line, a mechanical demon crash-landed beside him. Klaus stared down at the mangled collection of metal limbs, but the thing was not offline yet. With great difficulty, it jerked itself around so the head was pointed in his direction. It began to speak, muffled and scratchy, in a recorded voice.