&alon stayed like that for a long time, embracing me in that frozen moment. We were bound together in our brokenness. I felt both too much and barely anything at all. But not happy. I was not happy.

I doubted I'd be truly "happy" ever again.

At some point, I caught sight of a fountain of radiation blossoming in the distance. It was brilliantly bright, even to my first pair of eyes, looking like a gateway to Paradise—a ladder in the sky. It shot up at an angle.

It caught even &alon's attention.

"Wha?" she asked, turning northward with a sniffle.

I unfroze time. The radiation blazed bright. Night clouds' underbellies glowed.

It grazed the underside of one of the Vyx motherships.

"Angel's breath…" someone said.

&alon flew up and cried. "No! No! Wyrmehs!" She reached for the sky, as if to clasp the Moon. Fear quivered through her wings of flame.

"&alon?"

"The Darkness is there, Daddy Genneth. The wyrms are being super brave and fighting it." She wept. "But they're losing! Oh no," she shook her head, "no no no no no!"

"&alon, talk to me!"

Brigadier-General Watterson slithered up to me. "What's going on?"

"It's taking the wyrms!" &alon cried. "The Darkness has taken so many wyrmehs!"

"Incoming!" Lt. Dueright yelled. "Ship! Ship!"

Criminy…

A Vyx starfighter zoomed past &alon's fliers and unleashed its death ray on us. The beam plowed into the Sword's barrier.

Ileene's ghost floated to the surface. "Dr. Howle, what's that?" she pointed.

All of a sudden, another flower-ship swooped down and fired at it.

Vyx shooting vyx!

The second ship's death ray lazed across the night, shattering our attacker's shields like glass. The ship within exploded in a flash, raining silvery debris onto our shield and the battlefield, along with flames both blood-red and blue.

But that was only the beginning.

"Angel's mercy," Brigadier-General Watterson said. "It's a civil war…"

A new combatant had suddenly intruded on the battle between the fungus and its victims: civil strife.

"What's happening?!" Slick yelled.

"A revolution long overdue," I said, "several, in fact."

I looked up through the hypethral shelter provided by our guardian behemoths, who stepped away from us slightly, to give us a better view.

A great sea-change was underway. Vyxit forces were in retreat, both on the land and in the air. Many of the Vyxit vessels rose up and fired their engines' boosters to retreat to the motherships, only for rebel fighters to blast them out of the sky. Walker mechs started turning on their own troops; twEfE soldiers went to war, impaling each other with lances of lightning.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lt. Dueright asked.

I sang the answer in the course of a few measures, explaining not just what had happened with EUe, but what had happened between me and &alon.

The other wyrms stared at me in a mix of awe, fear, and pity.

"How do you know &alon isn't lying?" a wyrm asked.

Many of our spirits murmured in agreement.

"First, let me give her commands; I can follow up on them once that's done."

There was no time to waste!

All of a sudden, another torrential beam shot out from the distance, steeply angled upward. It crossed the Night like a strip of day, and tore through two Vyx motherships.

"Holy fuckin' Beast dick!" Slick cried. "What the Hell was that!?"

"Good God," Mr. Himichi said, muttering in awe, "is this it? Is this how it ends? We all go out with a bang?"

&alon flitted around in anxiety unconstrained. She shook from side to side, bent over in terror. "No! No no no no no! Make it go away! Make it go away!"

"&alon!" I snapped.

She turned toward me and flew close.

"Focus on me, &alon," I said. "I'm here for you."

She nodded and wept and then threw her arms around me and cried into my scutes.

I shuddered at her touch.

"I'm here."

"Daddy!" she cried.

I grabbed her and pulled her off me, cupping her in my hand like a broken butterfly.

"Listen to me, &alon. You need to focus. There's still work to be done."

I looked up in terror.

With their enemy thrown into disarray, &alon's forces gained the upper hand. The fungal hordes deluged onto the warring Vyxit factions, tearing into them with claws and fangs and tendrils and more. The giant, lumbering land-behemoths crushed alien soldiers beneath their building-sized feet. The fungal woodlands on their backs caught the bulk of the starfighters plummeting out of the sky.

I had to stop it.

&alon's brand was in need of a serious makeover.

I turned back to face her. With the Vyxit now in retreat, I figured now was as good a time as any to try to get &alon to set her grudges aside.

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"Pull back, &alon," I said. "Now."

"What?"

"Stop attacking the Vyxit. When I said no more hurting others, that meant no more fighting, too."

She shook her head. "But they're hurting me, and they're hurting the wyrms, too!"

"You can use your fungus creatures to defend yourself if someone attacks you first you get attacked, but if they run away, you can't go after them. You can't try to 'save' them, either, not unless I tell you so." I narrowed my eyes at her. "Do you understand me, young lady?"

&alon lowered her head and nodded, only to raise her head a moment later, brimming with questions.

"What do I do with all my things?" She looked at some of the horde's fungus creatures still in the thick of battle, and then floated up and petted the legs of one of the behemoths, looking like an ant patting the hull of an old cruise liner.

"Have them run away, or let them be destroyed," I said, "it's your choice. But, no matter what, they aren't allowed to hurt, infect, or try to 'save' anyone ever again."

"What about the wyrmehs?" she asked. "The wyrmehs are fighting the Darkness!"

"If you want, you can use your creatures to protect us."

Speaking of which…

"Genneth…" Mr. Himichi said. "You should have her free the other—"

—But I was already one step ahead of him.

"You need to let the wyrms be themselves, &alon. No more making wyrms silver-eyed."

&alon raised her arms in front of her chest, as if she was doing fisticuffs. "But… —the baddies!"

I shook my head.

"If the wyrms want to defend themselves against the Vyxit, that's their choice to make. You don't get to make it for them."

"Yes, Daddy." She nodded solemnly.

The eyes of the wyrms at battle in the sky gleamed like the stars my world had never had, which was why everyone around me gasped as the countless specks of silver wyrm eyes turned gold. The movement patterns of &alon's wyrm forces instantly changed. More than half of them turned tail and fled, while those who stayed fought the Vyxit with a ferocity that made &alon's tactics seem tame by comparison.

"They're free…" a wyrm brigader said. "I can't believe it."

I let my grand ward/repulsion field dissipate, finally letting my mind and body relax after going through gauntlet of exertion. Tingling sensations ran up and down my body as the magic faded. &alon's power flowed through me freely.

Gosh, I felt like I could do anything.

Well… almost anything.

The other wyrms looked up at me in fear, like a gaggle of students, waiting for guidance.

Slick was wide-eyed with astonishment. "Dude, what are you doing?"

"Look around," I told him, "the Vyxit have got bigger problems to deal with than any of us." I turned to &alon. "And we don't need to worry about you ever making any of us silver-eyed ever again, do we, &alon?"

She shook her head in shame. "No, Daddy Genneth."

I was looking forward to talking to Ibrahim. I didn't want to even think about the amount of therapy I'd need once all this was over.

"What about making bad wyrmehs into trees?" &alon asked.

"You can do it," I said, after a moment's thought, "but only if they're being mean to others—wyrms or not."

&alon nodded in what I hoped was understanding.

I saved the best for last.

"&alon," I said, "you need to make the fungus and its spores harmless. They can still be acidic if the wyrms want them to be—obviously, they should be able to defend themselves—and the wyrms should keep their various powers, but you're not allowed to use them to infect anyone. No more infecting, understand? People should be able to touch the spores and even eat them without getting hurt or sick. Do you understand me, &alon? No part of the fungus can hurt anyone. Not the fungus, not the spores, not the fungus creatures."

&alon nodded glumly.

I thought of the perfect comparison.

"Do you remember when I showed you what snow was?"

She sniffled and rubbed her nose on her wrist. "Y-Yeah…?"

One of my doppelgangers had shown her what snow was back when we were dealing with Ileene's trauma. She fell in love with it at first sight, making snow Angels everywhere she went.

"I want people to be able to play around in the spores the way you played around in the snow."

"What about peoples who are already starting to be saved?" she asked.

"You mean people you've infected? I want you to stop infecting them." I glared at her with all six of my eyes. "Daddy Genneth says that &alon has to stop infecting people right this second."

"And if I do that, you'll be with me?" she asked.

By the Godhead, I felt dirty. I was importuning myself to her, selling my companionship to get her to do the right thing. It was sick. Angel as my witness, it was demented and twisted and sick.

But that was my Sword to bear.

I sighed out a puff of spores and nodded. "Yes, I'll be with you. It'll be just like before."

"Just please… help them." I shivered. My emotions boiled beneath my hide. "And never, ever hurt anyone again…"

She looked at me for a stunned moment, and then nodded excitedly, eyes glistening. "Okay!"

Inside, a darker part of myself cackled.

Victory! &alon feels glum! She's upset because I'm upset! There, isn't that justice?

Every word of it was scorn, and all of it was meant for me.

The other wyrms and I—not to mention every single spirit inside any of our bodies—watched in fascination as &alon clenched her fists, furrowed her brow, squeezed her big, blue eyes shut, and grunted in concentration. Her eyes flickered open a moment later.

"I did it," she said, very matter-of-factly.

The other wyrms looked on in astonishment.

"Wait… that's it?" I said.

It certainly felt anticlimactic. And, let's not forget, some terrifying magical horror was playing out up north.

I had a sinking feeling it had come from Elpeck. Were there others okay?

The wyrms looked at me with fear in their eyes. A storm was beginning to brew in the distance. I could see where the clouds were thickening, even when unilluminated by the flashes from the Vyxit's weaponry.

It felt… wrong, and, from the way other wyrms were looking at it, it seemed I wasn't alone in feeling that way.

"How long has it been?" I asked. "Since I went AWOL, I mean."

"Hours," Lt. Dueright said.

Suddenly, in the distance—from where the beams had come—there was a massive explosion, bigger than any I'd ever seen. Light and radiation sprouted, plant-like, first in a great stalk. Heavy fronds burdened the stalk as it ballooned, though they quickly billowed into reaching foam.

&alon yelped and brought her hands to her mouth. Pride, terror, and pain intermixed on her face.

"The wyrmehs…" she said, weeping and sniffling. "They… stopped it." She sniffled.

"Stopped what?" I asked.

"The scary thing."

Ah, her unhelpful non-answers; I'd forgotten how little I'd missed them.

"The scary thing?" Lt. Dueright asked.

Tilting her head back, &alon gazed up at the Vyx motherships high in the sky. She pointed at them. "It was what blew up the meanies' big flying stuff."

"Might that be part of the reason why the Vyxit are in retreat?" Brigadier-General Watterson suggested.

All of a sudden, a third Vyx mothership exploded.

Lark appeared beside us, as irate as her red dress. "What the hell is going on here?" She gesticulated wildly.

"&alon, I thought you said the wyrms stopped the scary thing!" Lt. Dueright asked.

"I didn't see any beam," another wyrm said—and she was right, there hadn't been one this time around.

Plenty other Vyx vessels both large and small had been attacking it, but it couldn't have been enough to make it explode.

I played the event over in my mind. And I wasn't the only one.

Amity shook her head. Her fungal horns were flexible enough that they angled downward, slightly, showing her dismay. "I just went over it for the third time." She looked up at me. "Genneth—and I'm saying this as an aeronautics engineer—something blew that ship up from within."

I nodded. "I agree."

Other wyrms gave their assent.

Suddenly, &alon floated up in alarm.

"Daddy Genneth! More shippies are coming!"

She was right. A small squadron of Vyxit flower-vessels was rushing toward the ground. They engaged in some pretty crazy evasive maneuvers, darting this way and that to avoid both enemy Vyxit and vengeful, vindictive, or just plain angry wyrms looking for something to lash out against.

I raised my arm, starting to draw power from the Sword, when I realized these ships weren't powering up their weapons.

The wyrm brigades were getting agitated. Some slithered or flew away, while others hovered up in a hover, ready to fight.

The metal flowers' engines began to sputter as they made their descent. They banked toward what remained of Fort Marteneiss landing strip, tracing wide arcs over the horizon.

Queen's tears; Rayph! Jules!

I kicked off the dirt with my tail, and flew over and around the behemoths, heading toward the landing strip.

Lights pulsed from the ships' undersides as they made their final approach. It looked like it would be a direct vertical landing. The light from the undersides illuminated the plumes of air being pushed aside by their landing jets. The silver hull groaned as its flanges pressed down onto the dirt. For a moment, there was stillness, and then, with a hiss, a slit opened in the ship's side. A rigid tongue of metal stuck down from the slit, lodging itself into the sand.

A boarding ramp.

"What's going on?" Watterson asked.

I tightened my grip on the Sword. Whatever was about to come out, I was ready to rend it limb from limb. I just hoped it wouldn't come to that.

The soles of the Vyxit troops' silvery power suits clanked on the metal as they trudged down the ramp.

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