Six days later…
I was walking by the river again. Dreaming. Speaking with Hannah.
“You did it, Ryan! You’re the hero I always knew you could be. You did it,” she kept repeating. But her words could not heal the Euna-shaped hole in my heart. Besides, that was all Hannah had been saying for the past week. She never responded to me or let me speak. She just kept saying how proud she was of me over and over again.
Made it hard to hold a conversation.
A light touch on my arm startled me awake, and in an instant I was transported away from the riverside and back to the Bureau’s library.
“C’mon hotshot, everybody’s waiting,” Tabby said softly.
I took a deep breath to clear off the effects of my dream. “Any news about—”
Tabby shook her head, already knowing how that question was going to end.
I frowned and let it go. I should’ve known better. Euna’s orb was cracked. It was unclear if she would ever recover, and none of the Library’s records had enough data on slimes to help us figure out the best way to fix her.
Tabitha grabbed my arm and led me away from my new semi-permanent residence, a studying table littered with everything the Bureau had on slimes, healing magic, elixirs of regeneration, you name it. It was all dead ends.
“Do we really have to do this now?” I asked.
“Yes, Ryan. You saved all of Eastport. You rid the city of vampires and demons, thwarted a coup, and rescued the Director all in one night. You’re a hero, and a hot one at that. Let ’em commend you. Let the cute monster girls get a good look at you. Let Aleksei say he was wrong about you. Come on, is it really that bad?”
“It’s an award ceremony, Tabby. Of course it’s that bad. I don’t like the spotlight.”
“You mean you’re shy, hotshot, and that was the old Ryan. The new Ryan is a badass who slays demons, fucks hard, and saves the world. The new Ryan sure ain’t shy.”
She had a point. “Okay. Not shy then, but let’s go with distracted. It’s Euna. I hate the idea that we saved her from Club Ouroboros only to get her killed like two days later. That’s fucked up. She was a sweetheart. Is! Is a sweetheart. She deserves better.”
Tabitha took a deep breath as we entered the elevator. “I know. I feel it too. But we went on a suicide mission, Ryan. There were bound to be casualties.” Our emotions fell into a dark spiral for a moment before she sprang back up. “Look. Let’s stop by the infirmary on our way to the ceremony. Will that make you feel better?”
“Probably not,” I admitted.
“Well too bad. There’s something you need to see anyway,” Tabitha decided. I felt too hollow to even argue with her temporarily taking the lead. I’d failed one of my girls. I’m not sure anything was ever going to feel right again.
We stood in silence as the elevator brought us to the Infirmary and the doors slid open.
Tabitha led me inside and down a few twists and turns until we reached Euna’s room. I knew my way here so well I could’ve walked it with my eyes closed.
“Are you ready?” she asked gently.
I nodded and stepped through into Euna’s room to see…
“Derek.” In my voice, the name became an accusation.
Derek swallowed nervously and stood up. “Hey, man. It’s so good to see—”
“What are you doing here? Come to make sure you finished the job?”
Derek winced. “Look, Ryan, it’s not like that. What Bianca did to me, it was like mind control, man. I wasn’t in control. She just told me what to do and I couldn’t help myself. My last coherent memory was back at Hilltop when you saved me from that dino-dickhead. I’ve got bits and pieces of the next month but nothing real. Nothing solid. Whatever I did during that time please understand, it wasn’t me. It was Bianca puppeting my body around and making it do whatever she wanted it too, and it was horrible. She’s not even my type!”
“Your type is any pretty girl that gives you the time of day,” I retorted.
Derek drew himself to argue but just instantly deflated. “Okay, you’ve got me there. I know that you’re angry and hurting and a big part of you blames me for what Bianca did through me, but there’s something you should see first.” He pointed towards Euna’s bed.
My eyes narrowed. Why would he want to remind me of loss in the middle of this moment? Especially after he tried to kill her himself less than two days before she died. How could he think that would help his case?
Tabitha moved past me and drew back the privacy curtain.
There was Euna, pink as cotton candy, looking thin and opaque but very much alive.
“Surprise!” she said weakly, holding out her arm for a hug.
I blinked and took a step back. My eyes shot between Tabitha and Derek. “Is this a trick? Some sort of hologram or illusion?”
“No, handsome, it’s really me,” Euna promised.
“I still remember some of the magic Bianca taught me. I got some lessons from this sorcerer guy that says he’s from a different world. Not sure what that’s all about but uh…I remembered a spell she used to use to fix things when she got a little rough. With some tweaking, we managed to repair Euna’s core enough that she could start to eat this morning. After that she started getting better and better until she was this size and demanded to see you.”
“Get out, Derek,” I said sternly.
He blanched. “Dude, I’m sorry, I—”
I held up my hand. “That came out harsher than I meant it to. I’ll talk to you outside. Just let me have a private moment, alright?”
Derek nodded and headed out.
I moved to Euna’s side and hugged her tightly, and something inside me healed. Like glass breaking in reverse. I felt whole again. I hadn’t failed again. Euna was safe.
Tabitha’s hand rested on my shoulder.
“You never failed in the first place, Ryan. You’ve always done everything you could to protect us. Hannah, too. What happened to her was never your fault.”
The tear that fell down my cheek was the first that had escaped my eyes in well over a year. The minute it started rolling, I felt lighter than ever.
I did it, Hannah. I saved the world. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you back then, but I did like you asked. I stayed, I fought, and I became the hero you knew I could be. I hope that’s enough.
“Of course it is, my love,” Hannah said. Her ghostly apparition appeared on the opposite side of Euna’s bed for only a fraction of a second, but it was long enough for her to smile at me with nothing but overwhelming pride before her image vanished once more.
Tabitha came in and wrapped her arms around me, and Io rose from her seated position in the corner of the room to come join us; pulling herself up onto Euna’s bed and curling herself around all three of the rest of us.
We didn’t let go until Euna said we were crushing her.
Breaking apart, we all adjusted slightly and Euna beamed at each of us in turn. “So! When do I get to hop on this monster cock of his?” she asked Io and Tabitha.
Tabitha giggled.
“As soon as you make a full recovery, girl,” Io said.
“Uh, shouldn’t you be asking me that question?” I interjected.
All three girls started giggling harder and shaking their heads.
I pretended to get mad at them, but at the end of the day I mean… Oh no three hot chicks are all hella cool with sharing me…damn. Sucks to be me, right?
The award ceremony was painful. Though not nearly as painful as thanking Derek for saving Euna’s life. I’m not sure I was quite ready to fully forgive him just yet, but I could at least logically recognize that he was not the one truly responsible for those actions.
Aleksei was warming up to me. He mumbled something about being happy that his daughter had found a guy who cared so deeply for her and fulfilled her desire to remain wild at heart. Then he slid a card into my pocket for the tailor that he got all his suits from, so we were cool, honestly.
It was sweet watching the way he became a whole different person around his doctor lady wife. Apparently she was some sort of siren, which was pretty cool. We hadn’t been introduced just yet but since I was dating his daughter I’m sure we would meet at some point in the not-too-distant future. They made a cute older couple and laughed a lot in each others’ presence.
I made a short speech. Nothing too crazy, just thanked all the brave agents in the Bureau who stayed loyal to its true values instead of following Boris in his attempted regime of terror and oppression. Then I just name-dropped Alan a lot and let everybody cheer their approval.
The big guy had sort of become the Bureau’s new mascot at this point. Everybody loved him, and since I was the one who turned him into an ally; that meant they loved me too.
I’ve heard it said that fame was a fickle friend, though, so I was not counting on my celebrity status to become a permanent fixture. I sort of felt like the rookie quarterback who came in at the last game and won the championship. Like yeah, it was impressive, but when we really got down to it I had only been with the Bureau for about a month. So who knows what was going to happen next?
My manticore powers faded roughly a month after my encounter with Claire in the apartments, which when combined with the similar timeframe of the Carnisaur powers led me to believe that wounds sustained in battle only gave me about four weeks with whatever power set I happened to acquire. I could live with that.
The powers I got from my bonds with Tabitha, Io, and Euna only grew stronger as our connections deepened. All three girls seemed adamant that I hop on this monster-girl dating app that they made for me, but I struck a bargain with them to wait a couple of months until I was fully done adjusting to all of their powers and completing Tabitha’s accelerated training schedule before I started inviting any new women into our bed.
It took some ‘convincing’ but eventually I won that debate.
For her work purging the vampire infestation, Io received a major promotion and got a whole team of drone operators, technicians, and artificers working under her and a whole department that she got to run however she saw fit.
I got a little extra protective of Euna after her close call and started making sure she was well fed before any missions. This sort of resulted in her growing too large to safely transport as a single body so she started delegating and keeping multiple copies of herself in reserve. Some of those copies began working in different parts of the Bureau. A few helped Olson in the Armory and became apprentice quartermasters. Some helped out down in the Garage, capable of completely disassembling and maneuvering cars all on her own by splitting or recombining into different shapes. Mostly though she stayed in the Infirmary and helped heal people.
Tabitha started showing off her pregnancy belly shortly after my fourth month with the Bureau.
Aleksei was not initially pleased, but he warmed up to the idea the first time he saw an ultrasound of the twins and realized he was going to be a grandpa.
I had to vigorously reassure Io and Euna that I did not love either of them any less, and Tabitha enjoyed watching every time.
Like I said. Looking back, I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
My life was pretty great.